"I know I don't deserve to be invited to your wedding," he began, his voice rough with emotion. "After everything I've done… after the way I sent you away when you were just a child, blaming you for a tragedy that was never your fault."
He swallowed hard. "I have never been the father you needed, Adrian. Not when you needed me most. And I know that after more than two decades, I can't simply erase what I did."
His fingers tightened against the edge of the desk. "I regret it every single day. There is no way for me to take those years back. I can't pretend it never happened, because it did. I sent my own son away when he needed his father to hold him, protect him, and tell him that none of it was his fault."
His voice cracked. "I failed you."
