Chapter 17 - Ryan’s explanation
Ryan asked to meet Emily.
She refused.
He asked to meet me.
I accepted once.
Lawyers present.
He looked smaller without the tuxedo.
“You think I wanted this.”
“What?”
“To hurt Emily.”
“I think you wanted control.”
He stared.
“I spent months watching my wife not know who I was.”
“Yes.”
“I raised Lily alone.”
“Yes.”
“Every time Lily saw Emily, she fell apart for days.”
“Sometimes.”
“I had to build a life.”
“Yes.”
He leaned forward.
“Then Emily started improving after everyone told me she probably wouldn’t.”
There.
His voice broke.
“I didn’t know how to undo everything.”
“What everything?”
“Vanessa. School. Lily finally sleeping. The divorce. The house.”
I stared.
“So you let Lily believe her mother was dead.”
He covered his face.
“At first I thought it would be temporary.”
“How is death temporary?”
“She kept asking. She kept waiting. She couldn’t move on.”
“She was six.”
“I know.”
“No, you know now.”
He looked at me.
Then said the sentence that explained the mechanism.
“If Emily came back, I would become the man who kept her away.”
“You were already that man.”
He cried.
May you like
I did not comfort him.
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