Chapter 17 - OLIVIA’S QUESTIONS
Olivia remembered Michael’s sentence more than Jessica’s platter.
Pick it up. It’s still perfectly good.
At ten she asked him directly.
“Did you want us to eat off the floor?”
Michael answered:
“In that moment, I cared more about stopping conflict than protecting your dignity.”
“Why?”
“I was afraid of my parents.”
“You were bigger.”
He laughed sadly.
“Yes.”
“That’s weird.”
“Yes.”
Children have a talent for stripping cowardice of adult vocabulary.
Then:
“Did you love us?”
“Yes.”
“Then why?”
“Love does not automatically make someone brave or right.”
Good answer.
Olivia said:
“I think you were stupid.”
“Also fair.”
Their relationship survived.
Not perfectly.
But honestly.
Michael never asked the girls to forgive Jessica.
Never carried messages from David.
May you like
Never used his parenting time to argue litigation.
Those boundaries made fatherhood possible again.
