Lily noticed me then. “Aunt Sophie! Look!”
She held up the bowl, beaming.
“It’s really good, baby,” I told her, and I meant it.
Ethan smiled at her, quiet and proud.
I hated that it affected me.
She skipped off to ask Emma about portions, and suddenly Ethan and I were alone in the kitchen.
I cleared my throat. “I should probably say something.”
His posture changed instantly. Not defensive exactly. Braced. Like someone who had learned to expect impact.
Good.
Some things were not erased just because time passed.
“I’ve been hard on you,” I said. “Not unfairly. You hurt people I love.”
Shockingly, he nodded and didn’t interrupt.
“Jenny never forgave you,” I continued. “I don’t think she ever could. Not for what you did to Claire. And honestly, I don’t blame her.”
His jaw tightened. That landed where it should.
“She tolerated you,” I added. “For Claire. That was the best she could do. And in her mind, that was more than you deserved.”
He exhaled slowly. “That sounds like her.”
It did. And the fact that he knew it, that he didn’t argue with it, shifted my opinion a little.
“I carried that with me,” I admitted. “The town’s version of you. The boy who ran. The man who betrayed and humiliated my best friend.”
He looked at the floor for a moment. Then back at me. “I did.”
I hadn’t been expecting that.
“And yet,” I said carefully, “I see what you’re doing now. With Lily. With Emma. With Claire, even though your methods are questionable.”
His eyes flickered at her name, but he didn’t look away.
“You’re here,” I continued.
He swallowed. “That’s all I can do.”
I nodded. “It is.”
The admission sat between us, awkward.
“I’m not saying you’ve made up for anything,” I told him. “You don’t get points for doing what you should’ve done years ago.”
“I know,” he said quietly.
“But I won’t pretend I don’t see the difference,” I added. “And I won’t poison the air for Claire if you’re actually being good to her.”
That was my line. The boundary I could live with.
