CHAPTER SEVENTY-SEVEN: SPOKEN TRUTHS

Stephanies Perspective-

My mother's lips parted, ready to offer her narrative, but with a tender gesture, my father interrupted. His fingers brushed her arm, an unspoken plea for patience. "Darling, let me go first," he softly implored, locking eyes with hers, "since my choices are the ones that paved this unforeseen path—the path that brought Crystal into our world."

I watched as my father's eyes shimmered with a melancholic blend of sorrow and remorse, shadows of a guilt that must have been his silent companion for sixteen long years.

My father reclaimed his seat beside my mother, his eyes cast downward, heavy with unshed tears. I watched in somber silence as one slowly escaped, tracing a glistening path down his cheek. My mother's own eyes brimmed