Chapter 5: The Home I Went To Instead
That was three years ago.
Theodore is three now, and he is thriving, and he will grow up never knowing there was an afternoon when his father handed his mother twelve dollars and drove away. He'll grow up in safety and love, with a mother who is present and strong and never again small, and a grandfather who adores him — the commander who softens completely around a three-year-old, which is a thing worth seeing.
Gabriel is a diminished figure in Theodore's life, on the supervised terms a court set for a man who did what he did. He tried, in the aftermath, all the things such men try — the apologies once the money was gone, the sudden warmth, the horror at his own behavior that arrived precisely when it started costing him. I didn't answer. A man who is only sorry once it's expensive isn't sorry. He's calculating.
