The Choice to Go Back
Chapter 16 - The Choice to Go Back
Ethan did not want to go.
No one pressured him.
Thomas sat beside his mother's hospital bed.
Rachel waited in the hallway.
Marisol stayed home with Ethan.
“You don't owe her forgiveness,” she said.
“I know.”
“You don't owe her comfort either.”
“I know.”
Ethan stared at Lily's photograph.
“But my mom would've gone.”
Marisol understood.
“Yes.”
So Ethan went.
Margaret was awake when he entered.
Weak.
Frightened.
For the first time, she did not look powerful.
She looked old.
Ethan sat beside her.
Margaret struggled to speak.
“Sorry.”
Ethan said nothing.
Tears moved down her face.
“I ruined…too much.”
“Yes.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
Ethan leaned forward.
“I can't tell you it's okay.”
She nodded.
“Because it wasn't.”
Another nod.
“But I'm not going to carry what you did for the rest of my life.”
Margaret looked at him.
“My mother taught me better than that.”
Ethan stood.
Before leaving, he placed the old photograph of Lily and Marisol beside Margaret's bed.
“That's the person you tried to erase.”
Margaret touched Lily's face in the picture.
“You failed.”
Ethan walked out.
Thomas was waiting in the hallway.
“Did you forgive her?”
“No.”
Thomas nodded.
“Neither have I.”
Ethan looked through the hospital window.
“Maybe forgiveness isn't always the point.”
Thomas glanced at him.
“Maybe sometimes the point is making sure the damage stops with you.”
Thomas's eyes filled.
That evening Margaret died peacefully.
Her funeral was small.
Ethan attended.
Not because she was his grandmother.
Not because he had forgiven her.
He attended because Lily had spent her life refusing to become cruel simply because someone had been cruel to her.
After the funeral, Thomas handed Ethan an envelope.
Ethan immediately frowned.
“If this is money—”
“It isn't.”
Inside was an airport employee application.
Thomas smiled.
“You said you wanted work.”
Ethan looked at the position.
Entry-level maintenance apprentice.
Then he noticed the location.
May you like
Gate 17.
The same gate where Marisol had found him alone.
