He looked at me for a long time.
“I wanted to apologize.”
I waited.
He continued.
“I’ve spent the last year thinking about what happened. I blamed Melissa. I blamed you. I blamed everyone except myself.”
He swallowed.
“I was selfish. I thought I deserved something better, and I didn’t consider what I was destroying.”
I looked at him.
“Thank you for saying that.”
“I know it’s too
late.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I don’t expect you to come back.”
I was surprised by that.
He continued.
“I just wanted you to know that I finally understand.”
For a moment, I remembered the young man I had married.
The man who had once held my hand in a crowded movie theater.
The man who had promised to love me forever.
Those memories were real.
But so was the pain.
And so was the life I had built afterward.
