Chapter 14 - Derek’s First Real Apology Arrived After I Stopped Wanting One
His first apology:
I’m sorry I scared you.
Not enough.
Second:
I’m sorry I hit you, but you know how high the pressure was that week.
Worse.
Third came almost a year later.
By then the divorce-that-never-became-marriage problem was simpler.
We had never married.
No divorce.
Just separation of:
property,
belongings,
accounts,
contracts.
Derek wrote:
I believed getting married would make your income available to me because I had already built my recovery plan around it.
Then:
When you said no, I experienced your boundary as betrayal.
Better.
Then:
I used fear because I thought fear would make you reconsider.
There.
The truth.
Then:
My mother encouraged me, but she did not raise my hand.
Good.
I read the letter.
Put it away.
Did not answer.
An accurate apology does not create:
a second relationship.
May you like
It simply makes the record less dishonest.
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