PART 5
An Unexpected Visitor Tuesday evening, someone knocked on my door.
When I opened it, my younger brother stood there.
Ethan Bennett looked exhausted.
“Can I come in?”
I stepped aside.
He sat at my kitchen table while Sophie finished homework upstairs.
“She’s furious,” he said.
“I assumed.”
“She told everyone you abandoned her.”
I almost laughed.
“Really?”
“She said you cut off her food.”
I poured coffee for both of us.
“Did she mention why?”
He looked down.
“No.”
“That figures.”
Ethan rubbed his forehead.
“I’m not here to defend her.”
“You’re not?”
“No.”
He sighed.
“I actually came to apologize.”
That surprised me.
“For what?”
“For letting you become the parent.”
His words hung between us.
Ethan was forty-two.
A high school history teacher.
Kind-hearted.
Terrible with confrontation.
“When Dad got sick,” he continued quietly, “you handled everything.”
Hospital bills.
Insurance.
The funeral.
Mom’s finances.
The house.
“I kept telling myself you had it under control.”
“I did.”
“I know.”
He looked at me with genuine regret.
“But I never asked what it was costing you.”
For the first time all week, I felt understood.
“You know what hurt the most?” I asked.
“What?”
“She wasn’t worried about Sophie.”
Ethan nodded immediately.
“I know.”
“She was worried about salmon.”
He didn’t even try to argue.
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