Cancer
Literature is a defense against the attacks of life. It says to life: "You can't deceive me. I know your habits, foresee and enjoy watching your reactions, and steal your secret by involving you in cunning obstructions that halt your normal
Cesare Pavese
An apology that was never offered carries more than the original offense ever did. You have been living with both the thing that happened and the silence that followed, and the silence has grown heavier over time while the original moment has stayed the same size. What you thought you were waiting for was the words, but what you were actually waiting for was the acknowledgment that something solid had shifted between you and this person. The absence of that acknowledgment has become its own fact in the relationship, more present now than whatever first went wrong.