He doesn't bother to hide the look in his eyes at those words. Words given voice, finally, after three years of give and take, of approach and retreat, of the rejections on both their parts that have put paid to the reality of their utterance. And though he has heard them spoken, on only one occasion have they ever been true: from his mother. And after she died, they were never voiced in truth again.
"Three words, Dad. That's all I ever wanted to hear from you ... "
And his next question might seem callous, but there is no anger behind it. Only the ghosts of the past that used these words as weapons, and used him as a means to another, criminal end.