Mom,” she whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be. Just stand with me.”
“Always.”
***
I found Peter on the upper deck, his hands in his pockets, watching the water.
“I don’t know what any of this becomes,” I told him. “Maybe nothing. Maybe someday we’ll be friends. I can’t promise more than that.”
He nodded, quiet as the sea.
“But thank you,” I said. “For not staying silent this time.”
“I owed you the truth I didn’t dare to give at 17.”
***
Six months later, I opened the small interior design
