“It fell apart anyway,” I said. “You just blamed me for the sound.”
My father covered his face with one hand.
No one spoke for a long moment.
Outside, vehicles moved along the base road. Somewhere in the distance, a flag rope tapped against a pole in the wind.
Madison wiped her cheeks.
“What happens now?”
I leaned back in my chair.
“With Jason?”
“With us.”
That question was harder.
Jason’s future belonged to the board, the records, the chain of command.
Ours belonged to choices no regulation could force.
“I don’t know,” I said honestly.
My mother looked frightened by that.
“You don’t know if you can forgive us?”
“I don’t know if I want to keep explaining my pain to people who benefited from not understanding it.”
My father nodded slowly, as if accepting a sentence he deserved.
Madison whispered, “That’s fair.”
It was the first fair thing she had given me in years.
