“I was a complete idiot, wasn’t I?” he asked with a bitter laugh and I told him that he was right but he could still choose to change. He lowered his head and asked if I would ever forgive him for what he did to me and our family.
I told him that I had already forgiven him and that was exactly why I let him go to jail so he could finally become a man. Time passed and I continued living in my home by the sea while taking painting classes and traveling with my friends.
Three years later, Bradley was released on parole and I went to pick him up myself to bring him home. He looked thinner and much more humble as he sat in the car for several minutes without saying a single word to me.
“Mom, if you will still let me, I would like to start my life over from the beginning,” he finally whispered with a broken voice. I told him that his future depended entirely on his own choices and the effort he was willing to put into his recovery.
He told me that he had found a job at a public defender’s office where he could help people who could not afford a lawyer. “I do not earn much money but for the first time in my life, I feel like I am doing something real,” he said.