My father came to my therapy session and apologized without explaining himself

Dear Delyara, My father was harsh when I was a child. He shouted, hit occasionally, and treated fear as discipline. As an adult, every attempt to discuss it ended with explanations about his own childhood, culture, stress, or the fact that other fathers were worse. Last year, I invited him to one therapy session. He refused. Then he surprised me by agreeing months later. During the session, I described one memory of him hitting me after I broke a window. Usually, he would have corrected details. This time, he said, “I remember. I was wrong.” Nothing after it. No because. No but. No story about his father. I cried so hard I could not speak. We are not suddenly close. Some damage does not disappear because the person names it. But something changed when my father finally allowed responsibility to stand alone without asking me to comfort him for taking it.