Chapter 18 - WHAT HAPPENED TO ALLISON
Allison moved out permanently.
Not because I hated her.
Because Sophie needed home to stop feeling like a test.
She entered therapy.
So did I.
Months later, she asked to see Sophie.
I said no.
Then Sophie asked to see her.
That changed the answer.
We met at a park.
Public.
Simple.
Allison brought no gifts.
No replacement toys.
No speeches.
She sat on a bench.
Sophie stood three feet away.
“I’m sorry I locked the door,” Allison said.
Sophie nodded.
“I’m sorry I hid your mom’s pictures.”
Another nod.
“I’m sorry I made you think loving her hurt me.”
Sophie looked at her.
“It did hurt you.”
Allison swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I was scared you would never love me.”
Sophie hugged her stuffed fox.
“I did love you.”
Allison started crying.
Sophie continued.
“But you were mean.”
“Yes.”
“You can’t be mean because you’re sad.”
“No.”
The clarity of children is brutal.
And clean.
Allison did not ask for forgiveness.
That helped.
Afterward, she looked at me.
“I don’t expect us to fix this.”
“Good.”
She nodded.
“But I want to become someone who could have done better.”
“That part is yours.”
She left.
Sophie watched her walk away.
“Is she still family?”
I thought.
“She was part of our family.”
“Different?”
“Different.”
Sophie accepted that.
Then she took my hand.
At home, we rehung every picture of Grace.
Not as a shrine.
As history.
We also removed the wedding picture of Allison from the hallway.
Sophie stopped me.
“Don’t throw it away.”
“Why?”
“She was real too.”
I looked at my daughter.
Once again, she understood memory better than the adults.
So we placed the picture in a photo album.
Not erased.
May you like
Not centered.
Simply part of what happened.
