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“Mom,” he said, “you don’t need him. But if you want… you can forgive him. For yourself.”
My father stood at the doorway, clutching the old photo to his chest, as if holding it might somehow bring back everything he had thrown away.
As we drove away, he squeezed my hand again.
“Happy birthday to me,” he joked softly. “I finally met him. But you? You were enough. Always.”
And for the first time in eighteen years, I believed it.
I truly believed it.
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