Chapter 12
Margaret nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
I stood.
She reached toward my hand, then stopped herself.
“Daniel?”
I turned.
“Do you hate me?”
I looked at the woman who had raised me.
The woman who had betrayed my trust.
The woman whose choices had nearly destroyed my marriage.
“No, Mother.”
She began crying again.
“But loving you doesn't mean pretending you didn't hurt us.”
I walked away.
And for the first time, I felt no need to rescue someone from the consequences of their own decisions.
CHAPTER 10 — THE SURPRISE EMMA NEVER EXPECTED
Two years after I came home, Emma and I celebrated our fifteenth wedding anniversary.
I told her I had planned a small dinner.
Nothing extravagant.
Just the two of us.
She wore a beautiful emerald-green dress and the diamond necklace I had brought home on that terrible night.
For years, the necklace had remained inside its velvet box.
Emma had told me she didn't want to wear it until she could look at it without remembering the day I found her washing dishes.
Now, as she fastened it around her neck, she smiled.
“I think I'm ready.”
We drove to the location of my very first restaurant.
The little building where everything began.
Emma looked confused when we pulled up.
“Daniel?”
I smiled.
“Come inside.”
The restaurant had been restored.
Same wooden tables.
Same brick walls.
Same little corner booth where Emma used to sit counting receipts while I worked in the kitchen.
But tonight, every table was empty.
Except one.
Our old table.
A single candle burned in the center.
Emma covered her mouth.
“Oh, Daniel.”
I pulled out her chair.
“Do you remember our first anniversary?”
She laughed softly.
“We shared a plate of pasta because we couldn't afford two meals.”
“And you pretended you weren't hungry.”
She smiled.
“And you pretended the restaurant wasn't failing.”
I laughed.
“Neither of us was very convincing.”
We sat together.
A waiter brought us the same pasta we'd eaten fourteen years earlier.
For a while, we simply talked.
About the old days.
About everything we'd survived.
About the future.
Then I reached into my jacket.
Emma immediately raised an eyebrow.
“Daniel, please tell me you didn't buy another expensive necklace.”
I smiled.
“No necklace.”
I placed a small envelope on the table.
She opened it.
Inside was a document.
Her name was printed at the top.
Emma stared at it.