Sunlight filled the room.
For months, I’d accepted Daniel’s explanations without realizing how much I was being kept in the dark.
Now I wanted to see things clearly.
My phone showed several missed calls and messages.
*I’m sorry.*
*Please let me explain.*
*I know I ruined your trust.*
*I never wanted you to find out this way.*
I read the final message twice.
He regretted how I’d discovered the truth.
But I needed him to understand that the problem wasn’t the way the truth had emerged.
It was what he’d done before that moment.
I turned my phone off.
***
Daniel returned after dark.
I was sitting at the kitchen table.
My race medal lay in front of me.
Beside it was his unused bib.
He stopped when he saw them.
For a while, neither of us spoke.
Then he said:
“I’ll sleep in the guest room.”
