Part 8

“I’m used to being the guy people lean on, sir.”

“Who’s looking after you?”

[A snort.]

“Fill it out. You’re the first one.”

“He used to sit right here every Saturday. Same booth.”

“I know. He brought me.”

“I owe you an apology. The day of the will, I knew what Preston was doing to you. I let him. And when he told me about the land, I said, ‘Don’t tell me the details.’ I didn’t want to know.

“I was relieved you got so little. That way I never had to ask myself whether I’d always been unfair to you.”

“You didn’t hurt me because I didn’t get the money, Dad. You hurt me because you watched him humiliate me and acted like I deserved it.”

“Tell me about the program.”

“Briggs got the first apartment. Six more families since. Nobody sleeping in a car.”

“Preston wrote you, didn’t he?”

“He did. I wrote back one line: ‘When he can own what he did without blaming anybody, we’ll talk.’

“I’m not ready to forgive you yet, Dad. Same time next month?”

“I’ll be here.”

“Why is the money in there backwards?”

“It’s not backwards. That’s the side that matters.”