Page 37 of Open Secrets
She takes a sharp breath, eyes glinting. “We were all worried, but they wouldn’t give us answers. So we went to D.C. and practically camped out until someone finally told us.”
Maria’s voice trails off. She stares at the table, lips pressed white.
Dr. Nina leans forward gently. “What did you find out?”
Maria doesn’t answer. Her silence is heavy.
I squeeze her hand until she looks at me. My voice is soft, steady. “She found out I was alive. Me and one other soldier. The rest… didn’t make it.”
Maria’s head jerks. Her voice is tight, clipped. “Actually, we found out two soldiers were alive. I didn’t know if it was you.”
The words slice me open. I turn toward her, chest tight. “What?”
She nods, blinking fast. “They wouldn’t—or couldn’t—tell us. So we had to wait, and…” Her voice cracks.
Dr. Nina leans in gently. “And?”
Maria yanks her hand from mine, swiping at her tears with the heel of her palm. “It was horrible, okay? Those women weren’t strangers—they were my friends. And I was sitting there practically praying for their husbands to be dead instead of mine.”
My chest lurches. “That’s not true.”
She pushes up from the couch, pacing a few steps like the air around me is suffocating her. “You weren’t there, Lyle. You don’t get it. It was like… like there were only two cures in the world and I had to fight for one to get for our family.”
Her shoulders tremble. She sniffles, her back still to me. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Nina’s eyes soften. She nods once, setting her pen to the pad again. “Alright. We don’t have to push things. Why don’t we take a step back?”
Maria drags in a shaky breath, arms folded tight across her chest as she slowly returns to the couch, though she doesn’t look at me.
Nina tilts her head, her voice calm but curious. “Tell me about the two of you. How did you meet?”
Chapter Eleven
Lyle — Present
I force myself to shake off the weight, dig back through years of memories until I find one that doesn’t ache. “We met in high school,” I say. My voice softens despite everything. “Maria was assigned to show me around. I asked her out. That was that.”
“And you’ve been together since then?” Nina asks, looking between us.
I give a small, humourless laugh. “No. We broke up when we were eighteen. Didn’t get back together until years later. Around twenty-five.”
Maria shifts in her seat, uncomfortable where this is heading.
“Why did you break up back then?” Nina asks, looking between us.
I glance at Maria, waiting. She exhales, shoulders lifting like the weight of the memory is still there. “I didn’t want the Army life,” she says flatly. Then a crooked smile tugs at her mouth. “Fat lot of good that did me. He proposed, and I said no because we weren’t ready. And I was right, considering—”
“Considering?” Nina prompts, her voice calm, inviting.
Maria laughs, bitter. “Considering my dear husband here fucked his way through half of America, and then becamefriendswith the sluts he fucked. Sharing our deepest secret as foreplay, apparently.”
The laugh that bursts out of me is sharp, hollow. “How is that even relevant? You dumped me. I’m sorry I told Bethany, but it was a mistake. You make it sound like I did it on purpose.”
Her eyes snap to mine, venomous. “Then why lie about it? If it was such an honest mistake, why not tell me?”
The air between us crackles, heavy, dangerous.
Nina clears her throat, her voice steady, cutting through like she’s dispersing smoke. “Alright,” she says evenly, “I can see there’s a lot of tension around this. Let’s slow down. You don’t have to tell me everything, but… what is this secret?”
