“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know.”
Her expression softened for the first time since I had met her.
“Take your things when you’re ready.”
I looked down at the key.
Then I said the thing I should have said years earlier.
“You were right about me.”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
“I did marry her for the wrong reasons.”
“I know that too.”
I swallowed.
“But I loved her.”
Caroline studied me for a long moment.
Then she nodded.
“She knew.”
That hurt worse than being accused.
Because Evelyn had known everything.
The beginning.
The lies.
The calculation.
And somehow, she had also known when they stopped being true.
I moved into the cottage two months later.
For weeks, I could barely unpack.
