Daniel looked at me.
“Grandpa would’ve liked that.”
“He would’ve pretended he said it first.”
Daniel laughed.
A genuine laugh.
After everything settled, I returned to Dad’s grave.
I brought flowers and sat on the same bench where I’d shown Daniel the video.
“I should’ve listened,” I said.
Of course, Dad didn’t answer.
But sitting there, I finally understood his warning.
He hadn’t been right simply because Mark disappointed me.
Everyone disappoints someone eventually.
Dad had been right about the second part.
Don’t give away so much of yourself that you can’t stand when someone disappoints you.
For years, I’d believed being a good wife meant protecting my marriage.
Now I understood that protecting yourself sometimes means accepting when someone else has already destroyed it.
People later described what Daniel and I did as “brutal.”
We preserved evidence.
Consulted lawyers.
