Confession
"I suppose I really should apologize," Violet Holmes began once she and her daughter-in-law were alone. "Mycroft is hardly the most emotionally open person, and that is likely largely my part."
Having not expected a confession like that, Ann Marie's eyes fell to her hands. "Mrs. Holmes... I mean, most men don't really open up..."
"He more than others. I have no excuses, no words that forgive my actions, but I merely felt I should let you know where the blame lies so that you do not think it is something to do with you." She sighed, thinking of the first fourteen years of her eldest son's life and not surprised she could barely come up with a handful of memories of him. She regreted her abandonment of him, but one could not turn back the clock.
"Sometimes I suppose he is a bit..." The younger woman fell silent, not knowing what to say or if she should even speak at all. Finally, it was simply blurted out. "He's never once told me he loves me. I know he does, he says it in his actions, but I don't know if he can even say it."
Violet sighed, pity welling within her. All in all, however, at least he was capable of love at all.