“You were working.”
“I chose to go.”
“You went because the project mattered.”
“I went because I thought providing money was the same as being present.”
Maya looked at him.
David kept his eyes on Liam.
“I told myself the trip was for us,” he continued. “For the apartment. For his future. But part of me also liked being needed by everyone. My mother. Chloe. Mark. Even people at work. It made me feel important.”
“You are important.”
“That’s not the same as being needed.”
Liam’s hand curled around David’s finger.
David swallowed.
“I don’t want him to grow up watching me confuse the two.”
Maya was silent for a moment.
Then she reached across the space between them and placed her hand over his.
“You came home,” she said.
“It was almost too late.”
“But it wasn’t.”
David looked at her.
