Page 30 of Fierce-Dane

He wouldn’t ask about parents or siblings. Maybe she didn’t have parents either and he’d learned that in life. To never assume.

“Depends on your definition of that.”

“Okay.”

He wasn’t sure where to go from there.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “It’s just me, my younger sister, Sabrina, and my mother. I haven’t spoken to either of them in years. That is why I’m not sure how to answer. I don’t believe they are still there. Last I knew, my sister was living in Colorado and didn’t want to associate with anyone from her past.”

None of that made sense, but he knew enough to not ask that either. If she wanted to tell him, she would.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “Were you close?”

“At one point,” she said. “But not in years.”

He remembered she’d said she’d been home-schooled. Seemed her life was a bit of a mystery.

“So then it’s safe to assume your sister doesn’t talk to your mother either?” he asked.

“No. I don’t have any beef with Sabrina. She doesn’t have one with me. It’s just...she needed to move on and I respected that. She knows where I am if she wants to contact me. Maybe someday when she is ready she’ll do that.”

He nodded. “Sometimes it’s better to give someone the space even if it hurts you in the end.”

“Is that what happened with you and your ex? Mel, right?”

“Yes. And she got a lot of space and hated it. That was our problem. She didn’t like the hours of my job or the time I put into it. We had children while I was in my residency. I did what I could. Many felt it was a lot, all things considered. But my family and sister and her parents were there all the time helping her.”

“Sounds like she got more help than if you had a nine-to-five job,” she said.

“Many thought that too.”

“Did you?” she asked. “Sorry, that is intrusive.”

“It’s fine. I wanted her to be happy. I felt...guilty.”

“She had to know what she was getting into marrying a doctor.”

“She did. She said it was fine. We got through Tiffani and things were good, then she said she wanted another child. I wasn’t ready at that moment, but it wasn’t my decision.”

“Of course it was your decision,” she said. “A joint one. Unless it was an accident.”

“It wasn’t,” he said. He didn’t want to say as much as he was, but maybe if this all came out now it’d be easier than worrying that someone felt as if they were deceived in the end.

Mel had used that word to him before and it burned hotter than the incinerator in the morgue.

“Then I’m sorry, but my guess is you wouldn’t change a thing because of your kids.”

“Exactly,” he said. “And since I came this far I might as well say the rest. I don’t want there to be any surprises or anything. There are no secrets. There was no cheating oranything like that. Six months after I started working at Duke I thought we were finally in the clear and could build the life she always wanted.”

“Was it the lifeyouwanted? You said what she, not we.”

He paused and then said, “We talked about it.”

She only nodded her head. There were times Sloane asked or said things that made him think things he should have years ago.

“Six months in and she said it wasn’t working. It wasn’t what she envisioned. I knew she wasn’t happy. I was trying to see what I could do to help. The kids were older and in daycare all day. Mel worked.”

“You were stunned,” she said. “I can see it in your eyes. You felt betrayed and, as you said, guilty on top of it.”

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