Jason, now grown, had learned the truth—Grandma had sent him photos, letters, stories. “He wants to talk to you,” my mother said. “Please tell him I’m not a monster.” I gave her my number—for Jason, not for her.
Jason called. We talked, met, and formed a bond our mother never gave us. “I always wanted a sibling,” he said. She kept trying to contact me. I never responded. On Grandma’s birthday, Jason and I visited her grave with yellow daisies. We saw my mother watching from afar.
“We don’t have to talk to her,” I said.
“No,” Jason agreed. “We don’t.”
Some stories don’t end with forgiveness. But they can end with peace. I didn’t get the mother I needed—but I got the grandmother who saved me, and a brother who found me. And that’s enough.