Chapter 12: The Truth
The full truth came from Thomas’s brother.
He called me a week after the funeral.
“I need to see you,” he said.
We met at a small café outside town.
He looked older than Thomas had, tired and ashamed.
“Thomas was obsessed with you,” he said. “After you left, he changed. He built the business just so he could destroy it and leave it to you. He wanted you to suffer the way he believed he suffered.”
I stared at him.
“He married me to ruin me.”
“Yes,” the brother said. “He planned it for years. The hospital. The proposal. The will. He wanted you to grieve him and then drown in his mess.”
I felt sick.
The truth was ugly.
Thomas had never forgiven me for choosing my future over him at seventeen.
He had waited fifty years to make me pay.
I left the café and drove to the cemetery.
I stood at his grave and spoke to the stone.
“You waited fifty years to hurt me,” I said. “But I am still here. And I will not let you win.”
May you like
The truth was out.
Now I had to decide what to do with it.
