Page 62 of Open Secrets
So he tells me. All of it. I try to listen without commenting, biting my tongue until it hurts.
But when he finishes and tells me about their offer to reconcile, I just can’t hear another word.
“Fuck them,” I mutter, pushing to my feet.
I storm out, my purse bouncing against my hip, and hear his footsteps pounding the pavement behind me as I power-walk to the car I parked at the far end of the lot.
Lyle catches up, grabs my shoulder, twists me around. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing!” I shout. “Nothing’s fucking wrong, everything is peachy keen!” I throw my hands up, my purse slipping to the ground with a thud. “I tell you I’m struggling and you quit. I struggle for two years and they just…” My voice breaks, my arms dropping.
“Why are you so angry about that?” he asks, stunned.
Tears stream down my face. “Because it’s like Ichoseto do it. Like I chose to struggle. I let fear stop me from telling you. I let pride stop me from going to your mom. And I let humiliation stop me from trying with your dad again—to explain, to make them see. Not to mention the shit with Anna. God, I’m such an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot.”
I give him a look, daring him to convince me.
He holds steady. “Everything looks easy when the storm has passed. The things youcouldhave done, the choices youshouldhave made—you think I don’t have that? When my team was ambushed, you think I didn’t wonder if I’d made the right call? If they’d still be alive? But I can’t. I did what I could when shit happened. Screw the what-ifs.”
I blink at him, confused. “How does that make sense?”
He presses his hand to my cheek. “Because I’m pretty smart. I married you, didn’t I?”
Then he kisses me, soft and steady, right there in the middle of the parking lot.
When I pull back, I rest my hand against his chest. “See? This is what I need.”
He bends, scooping up my purse, and guides me back toward the cars. “You’re still seeing Dr. Nina.”
I blow out a raspberry, but don’t fight him as he steers me toward the passenger seat ofhiscar.
“What about mine?” I ask.
“I’ll pick it up tomorrow. It’s Sunday anyway.”
“You’re so nice.”
On the drive home, he glances at me. “You didn’t hear the best part. My parents offered to pay off the rest of our debt.”
My head whips toward him. “What? Why? How?”
He shrugs. “My mom’s parents apparently left quite a lot of money. It’s going to be divided between me and Anna anyway. They’ll give hers to her for the wedding and us to… pay our debts.”
I purse my lips. “I really, really want to be the bigger person and tell them to shove it. But it would be nice not to count pennies anymore.”
“And what about their apology?”
I sigh. “Same. I want to tell them to shove it. But it would be nice for the kids to know their grandparents. And we’ll see them at Anna’s wedding anyway. Iamthe maid of honour.”
His eyebrows shoot up.
I groan. “I might’ve said yes out of guilt. Plus, she promised not to make me wear orange.”
Silence settles in, only broken by the hum of the road. After a while, I ask quietly, “Do you really think they didn’t know?”
He shakes his head. “Doesn’t seem so.”
