The Truth She Couldn't Tell

c beating of her heart. The name escaped her lips in a hushed, broken w

rcus

morless smile touched his lips. "So you do remember my na

er fingers clumsy. The door swung open, and he stood there, f

to meet his gaze, to not shrink away from the raw hatred she saw there. Eight years.

, the mismatched furniture, the faint scent of stale coffee and dust. His gaze landed on a small, fr

pushing the door closed behind him. Th

this." He gestured vaguely around the room, at the other small trinkets she' d kept. A seashell from that bea

ike ash in her mouth. The journal was still on the floor near he

led papers, her hands grabbing for the journal

like steel. He pulled her to her feet, his face inches from her

don' t know what. Maybe for you to cry. To beg for my forgiveness. To show some

through her carefully constructed walls. He wasn't just ang

ess in it. She pulled her wrist free from his grasp. "And you got what you wanted, didn' t

have Chloe. We' re getting married." He said the word like a weapon. "My grandf

er reaction, looking for

show up in my city, in my life? Do you have some excuse? Some sob story about how you were forced to

the journal, to explain about his grandfather. But the words wouldn' t come. The illness, the fear, the years of pushing the truth down, they held

was the only way to keep him safe, th

You really don' t know me at all, do you, Marcu

ly, vile. She fel

the lie growing with every word. "Testify against you,

ed, replaced by a storm of pure, undiluted rage. For a

is arm across the side table. The picture frame, the seashell, the book

oice shaking with fury. He stalked to the door, yanking it

he sound echoing in the

he floor, to the scattered remnants of their past. Amid the

eam-colored envelo

Engraved in elegant gold script were t