Catrin stiffened at those words. "You are blaming me for everything?" she asked as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing.
But Brenda didn't hesitate.
"Yes, you are to be blamed for everything, Catrin." She said with conviction. She paused for a moment before continuing, "You only ever saw the struggle I left you with—but you never saw the reason why? Even after years, you never realized that what I gave you was not to make your life difficult but to make you live in happiness throughout."
She looked directly into her daughter's eyes.
"Idris loved you like no other. For years, no matter what you threw at him —your temper, your distance, your pride —he never lost his calm, he never gave up on you. Do you really think, with the way you have been, anyone else would have stood by you like that? Loved you the way he did?"
More than two decades had passed. It was time enough —more than enough —for Catrin to understand this. Yet, she never did.
