“Yes.”
The honesty struck harder than denial would have.
“You helped.”
Wade inhaled slowly. “Keep reading.”
I stood.
He rose too.
“Stop telling me to read.”
“I’m not trying to command you.”
“You’re trying to get through your assignment.”
His expression changed.
There.
I had found the wound.
“What did he call it?” I asked. “A favor? A promise? Did he sit you down and give you this box and say, Wade, when my inconvenient wife survives, take this over and explain why we lied to her?”
“Meryl.”
“Did he?”
“Not like that.”
“Then how?”
Wade pushed both hands through his gray hair. “He asked me to help him die without taking you with him.”
My stomach turned.
“Don’t you dare.”
“I’m telling you what he believed.”
“No, you’re dressing it up.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
His voice cracked across the hall.
