Big mistakes get paid off like any bill. Small payments, every week, until the balance hits zero.

Repair works like any other debt: in installments rather than one dramatic gesture. Wanting to settle it all at once is usually about relieving your own discomfort quickly, which is not the same as making something right. Trust rebuilds through repetition, through small reliable acts that accumulate where the other person can see them. Time is part of the payment and cannot be skipped.

Decide what one weekly installment looks like: a call you keep making, a task you keep doing, a change that holds. Make it without asking for the balance to be marked paid. Consistency is the only currency that works here.