“No more secrets,” she said. “I promise.”
I waited.
“Your father wasn’t the only person who frightened me twenty years ago. I was frightened of what people would think of me. I was frightened of losing the life I had built. And I was frightened that if I admitted the truth, I would have to face the fact that I had stayed silent when an innocent man suffered.”
She looked directly at me.
“I spent years telling myself that I had no choice. But I did have a choice. I chose silence.”
For the first time, her apology sounded like it belonged to her rather than to the circumstances.
“I can’t change what happened,” she continued. “And I can’t ask you to forget what I did to you. But I want you to know that I am willing to answer every question you have, even if the answers make you hate me.”
