“I thought sacrificing one life would save another.”
He turned back to me.
“My father died eight months later.”
He swallowed.
“Two months after the funeral, I came back.”
I stared at him.
“You came back?”
He nodded. “I drove to your apartment.”
My pulse quickened.
“There was a moving truck outside.”
I closed my eyes. I remembered the day immediately.
“Then I saw a man carrying boxes into the apartment.”
His voice had become almost a whisper.
“When he came back outside, he kissed your forehead.”
I frowned.
“Richard…”
“I thought he’d replaced me.”
My mouth fell open.
“That was my brother.”
He stared at me.
“He drove down from New Hampshire to help me move.”
Richard shut his eyes.
“I never knocked.”
I felt something inside me break. “So we both spent 22 years believing the other one had chosen someone else.”
Richard nodded slowly.
“Looks that way.”
Jordan sat perfectly still. Stormy looked as if someone had rewritten everything she believed about love.
I stood and walked toward the window.
Outside, the evening sun stretched across the backyard. For years, I had imagined dozens of reasons Richard might have left.
Another woman.
Cold feet.
Fear.
Never once had I imagined he believed he was protecting me.
I turned back toward him.
“You should’ve knocked.”
His eyes closed. “I know.”
