Vanessa came to see Dad in February.
She came alone. On a Tuesday afternoon. Dad called me afterward.
“She sat at the kitchen table,” Dad said. “Your mother’s table. For three hours. She told me everything.”
“What did she say, Dad?”
“She said after your mother died, she was so scared.” His voice was rough. “She said she felt like she had to hold everything together, the way your mom did. And she couldn’t. Derek’s business started failing. She didn’t know how to stop it. And every time I talked about how proud I was of you, it made her feel like she was the one failing.”
I didn’t say anything.
“She said she started telling people you were struggling because it made her feel better,” Dad said. “And then once she started, she couldn’t stop. And when Derek got desperate, she saw a way to use it.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe she’s sorry,” Dad said slowly. “I’m not sure I believe she’d have stopped if you hadn’t.”
He was quiet for a moment.
“She asked me to forgive her,” he said. “I told her I’d try. But I told her something else too.”
“What?”
“I told her she owes her brother an apology. Not me. You.”
The apology came in March. A letter. Not a text. Not a phone call. A real letter, on the cream-colored stationery Mom used to keep in the hall desk.
“Michael,
I lied about you for two years. I told people you were failing because I couldn’t stand that you weren’t. I kept you away from Dad’s birthday because I was terrified you’d ask the one question that would ruin everything.
You never once fought back. You never once yelled. You just waited until Dad could see for himself.
I don’t know if you’ll ever forgive me. I don’t know if I’d forgive me.
But I wanted you to know I see it now. All of it.
Your sister,
V.”
I read it four times.
Then I put it in my desk drawer next to Greg’s letter.
I haven’t answered it yet. Maybe someday.
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