Chapter 9 - WHAT MAKES A FATHER
Maddie began therapy.
Her therapist advised Rachel not to force contact with Grant.
“Let her control the pace.”
Grant hated that.
But, finally, he listened.
His first letter to Maddie was six sentences.
I’m sorry.
What I said was cruel and wrong.
You did nothing wrong.
You never had to earn being my daughter.
I loved you before you were born.
I still do.
Rachel read it first.
Then Maddie.
She placed it inside a drawer.
For two weeks she said nothing.
Then one evening she asked:
“Can Daddy come to the park?”
Grant arrived twenty minutes early.
He stayed on the opposite side of the playground until Maddie walked toward him.
She stopped several feet away.
“Are you going to say I’m not yours again?”
Grant’s eyes filled.
“No.”
“Even if people are watching?”
His voice broke.
“Especially then.”
Maddie looked at him.
“Mommy says being a daddy is choosing.”
Grant glanced at Rachel.
“She’s right.”
“Did you stop choosing me?”
He knelt.
“For one terrible moment, I chose my pride instead.”
Maddie did not understand pride.
But she understood terrible.
“So you did stop?”
Grant swallowed.
“Yes.”
Rachel was surprised by the honesty.
Maddie looked toward the swings.
“Can you start again?”
Grant nodded.
“If you let me.”
She took his hand.
Rachel turned away for a moment because watching them hurt too much.
Not because she wanted Grant back.
May you like
She didn’t.
But because love could survive in forms marriage could not.
