Chapter 20 - ReleaseDerek served nineteen months before transitioning to supervised release.
Mrs. Clark picked him up.
He looked older.
Not dramatically transformed.
Just less polished.
His first question surprised her.
“Is Amanda okay?”
“Yes.”
“Leo?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
He did not ask to see them.
That mattered.
Derek moved into a modest apartment.
He could not work in a fiduciary role involving client funds without disclosure.
Clark Residential did not offer him a position.
Mrs. Clark did not pressure the board.
Instead, Derek found work as a project estimator for a construction supplier.
Lower salary.
No executive title.
He accepted it.
The first week was difficult.
His supervisor was thirty-two.
Derek almost quit after being corrected in a meeting.
Then he heard his father’s sentence in his head.
A man who expects everyone else to absorb the cost of his mistakes…
He stayed.
Amanda learned through Mrs. Clark.
“He’s working.”
“Good.”
“He hasn't asked to see Leo.”
Amanda looked surprised.
“Why?”
“He says asking would put pressure on you.”
That surprised her more.
Months passed.
Then Derek asked through attorneys whether Amanda would consider a mediated conversation about Leo.
Not contact.
A conversation.
Amanda discussed it with Leo’s therapist.
The therapist said:
“Leo has limited memory of Derek now. Reintroducing him should serve Leo, not Derek.”
Amanda agreed.
They declined.
Derek accepted.
Again, that mattered more than promises.
The divorce decree was final.
Amanda legally restored her previous surname.
Leo already carried her surname from before.
For the first time, mother and son shared a name again.
Mrs. Clark worried that Derek would feel erased.
She almost called Amanda.
Then stopped herself.
Another old reflex.
Derek’s feelings were not Amanda's responsibility.
She called Derek instead.
“You saw the name change?”
“Yes.”
“You okay?”
“No.”
“Do you want to talk?”
He sighed.
“I knew it was coming.”
“That doesn't answer.”
“It hurts.”
Mrs. Clark nodded.
“Anything else?”
“I understand.”
Those two words could coexist.
Derek asked:
“Do you think Amanda will ever forgive me?”
Mrs. Clark gave the answer she had finally learned.
“That is not yours to manage.”
He laughed weakly.
“You've become unbearable.”
“I've become expensive in therapy.”
He laughed.
That evening, Derek opened Leo’s old room photographs stored on his phone.
One showed Leo at age two sitting on his shoulders.
Derek had looked genuinely happy.
The memory complicated his guilt.
He had not always hated the child.
He had resented what Leo represented.
Then he allowed that resentment to become indifference.
Derek realized something important.
Cruelty did not always begin as hatred.
Sometimes it began as repeated permission not to care.
Amanda meanwhile prepared Leo for preschool graduation.
He was nearly five.
His forehead showed no scar.
His fear of stairs had mostly disappeared.
At school, a teacher asked children to draw their families.
Leo drew Amanda.
Rosa.
Mrs. Clark.
A dog they did not own.
No Derek.
Amanda looked at the drawing.
She did not correct him.
Mrs. Clark saw it later.
“You included me?”
Leo nodded.
“Clark.”
She smiled.
Still Clark.
Not Grandma.
That was enough.
Then Leo pointed to the dog.
“His name Derek.”
Amanda nearly choked.
Mrs. Clark laughed so hard she cried.
“Why Derek?”
Leo shrugged.
“Funny name.”
They both laughed.
Even the name had lost some power.
May you like
Derek would always be part of Leo’s history.
He did not have to remain the center of it.
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