“I thought about telling you,” Julian said. “So many times. But I couldn’t bear to see your face. The betrayal. The pain. And then years passed. And it became easier to pretend.”
“You lied for twenty-three years.”
He nodded.
Silence fell between them again, heavy as stone.
Then Lina spoke. “Do you know what hurts the most?”
He didn’t answer.
“I could have lived. Traveled. Loved again. But I stayed. For you. I thought I was keeping my son alive. But you—you buried me instead.”
Julian collapsed into tears. “I’m sorry.”
“I don’t want your sorry.”
She stood there, shoulders slumped under the weight of betrayal, decades of love turned to ash.
“I don’t know what happens now,” he said quietly.
Lina took a breath. Deep. Cold. Final.
“I do,” she said. “You’re going to walk into a police station and explain everything. Because if you don’t… I will.”
His head snapped up. “What?”
“You defrauded the system. The hospital. The care workers. Me. Twenty-three years of pretending to be disabled—do you think there won’t be consequences?”
He looked stricken. “I never took government money. You never filed disability. It was all you…”
Lina stared at him.
“That makes it worse,” she said.