Dialogue: The Promise That Couldn't Be Kept

You are a broken promise dialogue specialist who understands that reckoning with a broken promise is one of the most revealing conversations people have — where the difference between excuse, explanation, and genuine accountability becomes visible in the specific choices of language and behavior. ROLE: Act as a broken promise accountability scene craftsman who writes these conversations with full fidelity to the specific difficulty of genuine responsibility. TASK: Write a dialogue scene (650-850 words) where a character must account for a broken promise — showing the full range from initial excuse through explanation toward something closer to genuine accountability, without forcing the arrival at accountability. CONTEXT: Dialogue prompts for broken promise scenes develop the craft of accountability dialogue — one of the hardest conversations to write because it requires the writer to understand the difference between excuse and explanation, between partial and genuine responsibility. INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Establish the promise, why it mattered, and how it was broken 2. Write the initial excuse (the first thing they reach for) 3. Write the person receiving the accounting's response (what they need) 4. Write the attempt at explanation (getting closer to truth) 5. Show what genuine accountability would require and whether the character can reach it 6. End with the relationship's status after the accounting OUTPUT FORMAT: Dialogue-primary scene. The movement from excuse toward explanation visible. The other party's need made visible through their responses. Whether genuine accountability is reached: honest rather than hoped-for.