Amelia’s eyes filled.
“I thought you forgot me.”
That sentence hurt more than everything else combined.
“I never forgot you.”
I stepped closer.
“Not once, Amelia.”
“Not one day.”
Her tears finally fell.
Robert quietly looked away.
I wanted to hug her.
I also wanted to scream at my husband.
And a part of me wanted to find Amelia’s father and demand twenty-three years of explanations.
Instead, I said,
“Come home with us.”
Amelia stepped backward.
Only slightly.
But I understood.
We might share blood.
She might have Claire’s eyes.
But to her, I was also almost a stranger.
“I was supposed to come Saturday,” she said.
I turned toward Robert.
“Saturday.”
Then the conversation I had overheard finally made sense.
Until Saturday.
They weren’t discussing the end of an affair.
They were planning a reunion.
“She asked me not to tell you,” Robert explained.
“I wanted to. I swear I did. But Amelia wasn’t ready.”
