A man kneeling in a living room, looking helpless | Source: Midjourney
My anger eased, just a little. “You could have told me. We could have faced it together.”
“I know now,” he said, lowering his head. “I was young and stupid. Will you ever forgive me?”
I sighed, feeling the heaviness of thirteen years of loneliness and pain. “I need time, Daniel. But you can stay for now.”
A young man having a serious conversation with an older woman in a living room | Source: Midjourney
We ate dinner together, the silence broken only by the clinking of forks on plates. I couldn’t help but notice how much he had changed. The lanky teenager was gone, replaced by a man with broad shoulders and tired eyes.
“So,” I said, breaking the silence, “what have you been doing all these years?”
Daniel pushed his meal onto his plate. “It’s a long story, Mom. I’ve been… everywhere. I tried to get out of it.”
“And that’s the case?” I asked. “Did you manage to get out?”
A woman having a conversation over a meal in a kitchen | Source: Midjourney
He nodded. “I think so. I’m clean now. I have been for a while. I have a job in town. I just… I needed to see you first. To apologize.”
I wanted to believe him. My God, as I wanted to believe. But thirteen years of disappointment and loneliness had taught me to be careful.
