Ch. 16: The Other Side of Truth

The letter had arrived without a name, and that was the first thing that frightened her.

There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Emily said. "I'm asking you to listen." "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. For a heartbeat the careful distance between them thinned to nothing at all.

They did not speak for a long moment. Some silences carry more than words ever could, and this was one of them.

Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most. "I'm not asking you to forgive me," Emily said. "I'm asking you to listen."

He watched her go and understood, too late, that he had already made his choice.