I spent 3 years telling my brother he was the problem, then I replayed one voicemail from 2022
My brother stopped calling me after a fight we had about our dad's estate back in 2022. For 3 years I told anyone who would listen that he was greedy and cold. Last month I was cleaning out my old phone and played a voicemail he left me the week before it all blew up, and in it he's asking me to split the money 50/50 and saying he just wanted us to be okay. I had it backwards the whole time and I never answered that call. I wrote him an apology letter and it's still sitting in my desk drawer because I can't figure out how to mail it without sounding like I'm making excuses. If you've ever been the one who was wrong in a family blowup, how did you actually pick up the phone?
One thing that's not quite right here... you say you never answered that call, like that's the whole problem. But the call wasn't the moment it went wrong, the three years after were. He left that voicemail and then you spent three years telling people he was greedy, and that's the part he'll have a harder time with. So when you do reach out, don't lead with the voicemail like it's a magic fix. Lead with the fact that you bad mouthed him to everyone for years and you know that was wrong. That letter in your drawer is probably fine, you just have to mail it knowing it might take him a while to come around, and that's fair. Pick up the phone after you send it, not instead of.