That sentence made me even angrier.
They had made the decision for me.
They had even decided how much pain I was allowed to know.
Then I reached the hardest part.
Over the years, Susan had tried several times to leave my life.
And suddenly, I remembered.
Once, without any explanation, she told me she wanted to move to another state.
I cried.
I told her:
“I’m not going to let you leave. You’re my family.”
She stayed.
Now I understood why she had hugged me for so long that day.
Another time, she stopped coming to our house for months.
I got angry and forced her to explain what was going on.
She told me she was simply very busy with work.
It was a lie.
She was trying to distance herself from me.
And every time, I pulled her back into my life.
At the end of the letter, Michael wrote that after he was diagnosed with cancer, he had made Susan promise that she would tell me the whole truth after his death.
