Chapter 21 - LUKE READS THE AGREEMENT
At sixteen, Luke asked to read the confidentiality agreement Grace signed before he was born.
We let him.
Redacted unrelated personal details.
He read the $150,000 schedule.
Then:
“Mom, you took this?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I needed it.”
“Did that mean you agreed to keep me from Dad?”
“No.”
She showed him the language.
No waiver of parental rights.
No promise never to contact me.
Then Luke looked at me.
“Why didn’t you find us?”
There.
Again.
Different age.
Different answer.
“Because I believed your grandmother when she said your mother wanted me gone, and I let pride make that answer convenient.”
He stared.
“Convenient?”
“Yes.”
“You were hurt.”
“Yes.”
“So?”
“So hurt is not the same as helpless.”
He nodded slowly.
Then:
“Did you forgive yourself?”
Not completely.
May you like
“I’m working on it.”
Good enough.
