Loretta answered carefully.
“Sometimes.”
Amber’s mouth trembled.
Loretta continued.
“He loved you.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
Loretta looked down.
“He loved you. He worked hard. He could be generous. He also protected Anthony in ways that hurt you. He let me carry blame because he was afraid you would stop loving him too.”
Amber’s eyes filled.
Ruth watched her absorb a parent becoming human.
Not worse.
Not better.
More complicated.
Amber whispered, “I spent my whole life thinking you were the bad one.”
Loretta nodded.
“I helped you think that.”
“Why tell me now?”
“Because I am tired of letting dead people stay innocent by making living people lie for them.”
Ruth looked at Loretta.
That sentence had cost her.
Amber sat down.
So did Loretta.
Ruth pulled out the third chair.
They talked for two hours.
Not neatly.
Amber shouted once.
Loretta cried twice.
Ruth mostly listened.
There was no miraculous reconciliation.
Loretta did not move into Amber’s guest room.
Amber did not start calling every day.
They agreed to lunch the following week.
That was all.
It was enough.
Marcus came to the restaurant that evening.
Ruth was locking the office.
“You knew they were meeting?”
“Not until it happened.”
“How did Amber take it?”
