“Then why did he leave?”
I struggled to answer.
“Because Daddy made a hurtful choice. Not because you weren’t good enough.”
She was quiet.
Then she asked:
“Mom, you did everything for Daddy, didn’t you?”
I nodded.
“You worked all the time. You never bought yourself anything. You always said Daddy needed us.”
“Yes.”
“And you said that’s what people do when they love someone.”
My heart sank.
She looked at me.
“Then why didn’t it work?”
For a moment, I had no answer.
Because suddenly, I understood.
For ten years, Sophie had watched me put my own needs aside whenever her father needed something.
I’d believed she was learning what it meant to love someone through difficult times.
But she’d learned something else too.
