Chapter 10 - DANIEL FACED THE PART MARGARET DIDN’T CAUSE
Daniel spent months wanting a version of the past where everything could be blamed on Margaret.
It would have been emotionally convenient.
It was also false.
Marriage counselor Dr. Aaron Blake forced him to examine that.
“You had a personal phone,” Aaron said.
“Yes.”
“You knew where Sarah lived.”
“Yes.”
“You knew she was receiving cancer treatment.”
“Yes.”
“You believed she wanted distance.”
“Yes.”
“Did you ever ask her directly, without your mother in the middle, whether she wanted the marriage to end?”
Daniel stared at the floor.
“Once.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she didn’t know.”
“When?”
“Almost a year before she died.”
“And after that?”
Daniel did not answer.
Aaron waited.
Finally Daniel said, “I was scared.”
There it was.
Margaret manipulated communication.
Daniel still chose avoidance.
He had loved Sarah.
He also resented her.
When she criticized his mother, he often felt forced to choose between two women who both expected loyalty.
When treatment began, Daniel convinced himself that giving Sarah emotional space was kindness.
Some of it was.
Some of it was cowardice.
“I wanted her to ask me clearly to come back,” he admitted.
Aaron nodded.
“And she wanted you to come without being asked.”
“Yes.”
“That dynamic existed before Margaret intercepted anything.”
Daniel hated that.
It was true.
Aaron continued.
“Your mother may have changed outcomes. But if you turn her into the sole author of your marriage, you lose the chance to understand your own choices.”
Daniel sat with that for weeks.
Eventually, he visited Sarah’s grave alone.
He brought no flowers.
Sarah had once told him she preferred people spend flower money on horses that needed veterinary care.
He sat in the grass.
“I’m angry at her,” he said aloud.
The sentence sounded strange beside a grave.
“I’m angry at Mom. But I’m angry at you too.”
Wind moved through the trees.
“You could have called me. I could have called you. We were both stubborn. We were both hurt.”
His voice broke.
“And I would give anything to have one more fight where neither of us lets somebody else explain what we mean.”
That was the first time Daniel’s grief stopped being an investigation.
It became grief again.
Later, he told Noah something similar in simpler words.
“Mom and I loved each other, but sometimes adults can love each other and still handle problems badly.”
Noah asked, “Would you have gotten back together?”
Daniel answered honestly.
“I don’t know.”
That was difficult.
But it was cleaner than inventing a perfect reconciliation stolen entirely by Margaret.
Sarah’s draft plan showed she wanted to try.
Daniel believed he would have tried too if he had received it.
Whether they would have succeeded was unknowable.
Margaret had taken away the chance to find out.
That was serious enough.
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Daniel did not need to invent certainty on top of it.
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