It was like the other shoe had finally dropped. My heart had never felt this calm.
"Ryan, let's get a divorce."
His head snapped up.
Then came the irritated pinch of his brow. He flicked on the lights and tossed his jacket carelessly onto the sofa.
"Noreen, you know I promised your father I'd never divorce you."
"What happened just now—that was my fault. I shouldn't have gone to see Sandra."
"But she went from being on top of the world to selling flowers on the street. She's suffered enough."
"I just felt guilty, wanted to give her some compensation. I won't see her again!"
I slowly lifted my gaze to the man in front of me.
We'd spent twenty years side by side, yet he felt like a complete stranger.
"What about me? Haven't I suffered enough? How do you plan to compensate me?"
After my mother passed, my father took me to teach in a remote mountain village.
That's where I met Ryan Stephens.
His mother had gotten pregnant out of wedlock, then been abandoned. She gave birth to him and left him with his elderly grandmother.
My father took a liking to this quiet, hardworking boy.
Then one night, in the pouring rain, Ryan knocked on our door.