Margaret finally spoke.
“I never wanted that.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“You don’t understand.”
“No,” Margaret said quietly. “I don’t.”
She took a breath.
“But I understand this.”
Everyone became still.
“You didn’t have to love me.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“You didn’t have to like me.”
Margaret’s voice trembled.
“You didn’t even have to accept the bracelet.”
She looked down at the mud on her dress.
“But you did not have to hurt me.”
Nobody spoke.
Margaret looked at Daniel.
“And you didn’t have to laugh.”
Daniel’s face collapsed.
“Mom…”
She raised one hand.
“Don’t.”
That one word seemed to hit him harder than anything I had said.
Margaret had spent his entire life making excuses for him.
When he forgot her birthday, she said he was busy.
When he missed Thanksgiving, she said work was demanding.
When he didn’t call for weeks, she said young people had their own lives.
But now she was looking at him as though she had finally seen something she couldn’t explain away.
“You watched me fall,” she said.
Daniel swallowed.
“I thought she was joking.”
“You saw me lying in the mud.”
“I know.”
“You laughed.”
His eyes filled with tears.
“I know.”
