“I wasn’t celebrating trapping you.”
I sank into a chair.
Every terrible possibility I’d imagined dissolved.
Only to reveal something somehow more painful.
Matthew hadn’t spent a lifetime trying to control me.
He’d done it because he loved me.
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And somehow, that hurt even more.
“I need to ask you something.”
Matthew nodded.
“If I had failed… If I’d embarrassed myself… If I’d made terrible decisions… Would you have stepped in every time?”
The answer arrived in his silence.
Matthew hadn’t spent a lifetime trying to control me.
I stood.
“That’s exactly the problem.”
His shoulders slumped.
“I know.”
“No.” I wiped my eyes. “I don’t think you do.”
I walked toward the front door.
“You believed in me.”
“More than anyone,” he whispered.
“Thank you.”
He looked hopeful.
“You believed in me.”
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Then I continued.
“But you never believed I deserved ownership of my own life.”
