He lowered his head.
“I wanted it so badly that I couldn’t see anything else,” he said. “I was afraid Jennifer would find out how bad things were. I was afraid we’d lose the house. I kept telling myself that the land would be mine someday anyway.”
“It was never yours to take.”
“I know that now.”
“You should have known it then.”
“I should have.”
I looked at the man sitting across from me.
For months, I had thought of him as a stranger wearing my son’s face. But in that room, I saw flashes of the boy he had once been.
“I don’t know whether I can forgive you,” I said. “Not now.”
He nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
“But I will always love you. You are my son. What you did cannot change that.”
Michael covered his face with his hands and began to sob.
