Ryan looked down at the envelope.
“You could have lost me.”
“I know.”
My voice broke.
“That was the risk. But I couldn’t keep watching her control your life while everyone pretended it was love.”
I paused.
“And I need you to understand something. I wasn’t trying to trap your mother. I was trying to give you a chance to hear her without someone else explaining what she’d said.”
Ryan held the envelope without speaking.
Then he asked, “What do we do with the money?”
“Return it.”
He nodded.
“All of it?”
“Every dollar.”
The next morning, Ryan returned the money to Patricia with a letter.
He told her he wasn’t cutting her out of his life forever, but he needed distance. He also told her that if she wanted a relationship with him in the future, it would have to be built on honesty rather than guilt.
She didn’t respond for several days.
