Chapter 6 - JAMES HAD TO CHOOSE WHAT KIND OF FATHER HE WANTED TO BEJames struggled more than I expected.
Not with protecting Sophie.
That part was immediate.
With accepting who his mother had become.
One night, I found him sitting alone in the garage.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
I sat beside him.
He stared forward.
“I keep remembering good things.”
“About Margaret?”
He nodded.
“She took care of me when Dad traveled.”
I waited.
“She came to every baseball game.”
“You’re allowed to remember that.”
He looked at me.
“How can someone who did those things do this?”
That was the hardest question.
Because cruel people are rarely cruel every minute of their lives.
“She probably loves you.”
“That almost makes it worse.”
“I know.”
James rubbed his face.
“I should have noticed.”
“You should have listened sooner.”
He looked at me.
I wasn’t going to tell him he bore no responsibility at all.
He had ignored smaller signs.
Margaret insulting girls at dinner.
Margaret constantly asking when we would “try for a boy.”
Margaret giving Tyler expensive gifts while Sophie received practical ones.
We had both normalized too much.
But responsibility for abuse still belonged to the person who chose it.
James said:
“I’m changing my schedule.”
“Why?”
“I missed too much.”
I touched his hand.
“Don’t punish yourself by destroying your career.”
“I’m not.”
He looked at me.
“I’m delegating.”
That was different.
He started attending school pickups.
Dance lessons.
Pediatric appointments.
Ordinary life.
Sophie noticed immediately.
One afternoon she ran toward him after school.
“Daddy!”
He lifted her.
She laughed.
Then asked:
“You’re really here?”
James looked like someone had punched him.
“Yes.”
“No work?”
“Work can wait fifteen minutes.”
May you like
Sophie smiled.
That fifteen minutes mattered more than almost anything the Parker trust could buy.
