I flew back to Ontario and asked Grant to meet me alone for breakfast. When he arrived, he looked exhausted and uncertain. I placed my tablet on the table and played the security footage. He watched Cassandra send me away, then watched himself standing at the gate while Lorraine manipulated him into believing I had chosen not to attend. When the recording ended, he covered his mouth.

“I believed her,” he whispered.

Then he showed me something on his phone. It was a message Cassandra had written before he called me about the sixty-eight thousand dollars. It instructed him to tell me that paying the bill was my duty as his mother, and specifically warned him not to apologize or ask questions. I read it twice. Grant began crying. He had never known I paid the original fifty-eight thousand dollars, and he was devastated when I told him. He lowered his head onto the table. I gently placed my hand on the back of his head, just as I had when he was a little boy. But this time, I knew forgiveness would require more than tears.

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