She’d gotten no explanation, but the truth couldn’t be more bluntly obvious: her mother didn’t want to be a mother, and so had stopped being one. Margaret had removed herself from Tom’s life because she was dissatisfied with her own, and because she’d screwed everything up in such a way that she couldn’t bear to be around when it all came crashing down. What she wanted from her mother was remorse. What she wanted—she didn’t fully understand this until she was looking into her son’s eyes, her own eyes—was for her mother to tell her she was sorry. Deeply, truly sorry.
