“Because I was ashamed, Rebecca. Ashamed that I still cared. Ashamed to run after a man who never ran after me. Ashamed you would think I was weak. And…” His voice cracked. “I found out something else.”
Every nerve in my body sharpened.
“What?”
“I have a sister.”
I could not speak.
“What?”
“His daughter with another woman. She’s sixteen. Her name is Hannah. Her mother died two months ago. She was alone with him at the hospital. Alone, Rebecca. Signing forms, listening to doctors, no money, no idea what to do.”
I leaned against a shelf full of handbags.
For a second, I wanted to hold onto my anger.
I had the right.
He had lied. He had vanished for two days. He had left me imagining the worst while something inside me quietly bled.
But a sixteen-year-old girl sitting alone in a public hospital while her father was dying was the kind of image that could cut through any armor.
“You spent the weekend there?” I asked, quieter now.
