When Love Became A Larceny

y was at its peak, ce

ht my marriage to Isabell

rf

ifty, Bell

ssive, the doctors sa

hite hospital bed, a gho

s a rasp, he

ispered, her ha

... Mark

ons. Mark, twenty, and A

not yours

in the air, hea

y mind blank, refu

t are you sa

dropping into still water. "My co

n her voice,

flat st

wi

em. They need to kno

oor o

worn, a cheap guitar case

y

m old college photos of Bell

t me, a flicker of somethi

a weak, triu

re," she

ex arrived

umb, as Bell

y called father for t

nger, Ryan, was the

confusion, maybe e

I saw cal

e pragmatic one, loo

nce thought mirrore

ld be ours, with our real father,"

ed, his g

arent, but as a new avenue to the

wea

mpany

fe I p

n's side, a unite

ke an outsider

s

her, h

's s

ysical blow, stealing

familiar pain, but

k, stress, it ha

ion, the docto

rable weight pr

was too sm

on a lie, had