Chapter 6 - MARK MOVES TO BLACKWOOD
Northstar gave affected managers three options.
Relocate to Blackwood.
Take severance.
Apply for another internal role.
Mark chose relocation.
Linda cried.
I heard about it from him, not gossip.
“I’m moving.”
“Okay.”
“That’s all?”
“What do you want me to say?”
He laughed.
“I don’t know.”
Then:
“Mom says she’ll move too.”
I actually laughed.
“Of course.”
“She’s looking at condos.”
“Near you?”
“Yes.”
“Congratulations.”
“That sounded cruel.”
“A little.”
He sighed.
Then something unexpected:
“I told her no.”
I stopped.
“What?”
“I told her not to move because of me.”
That was new.
“What happened?”
“She cried.”
“Shocking.”
“She said I was abandoning her.”
I stayed quiet.
He continued.
“And I heard it.”
“What?”
“The thing she does.”
Finally.
“What thing?”
“Turns every decision I make into something being done to her.”
There.
Two years late.
Still real.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“No.”
He inhaled.
“I’m sorry I made you live inside that.”
My throat tightened.
That was the first apology I believed.
Not because it asked for me back.
Because it named the pattern.
Mark rented an apartment in Blackwood.
Twelve minutes from his new office.
Twenty from my estate.
He did not ask to visit.
That mattered too.
Linda stayed where she was.
May you like
For now.
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