He was silent for a long time.
“Before Paige.”
That answer hurt more than her name.
He said every room he entered, people asked about Jacqueline Palmer.
At client events, he was Jacqueline’s husband.
At Vanguard, he was the man who introduced clients but did not own
anything.
He said he felt small.
I listened.
Then I said:
“Feeling small did not require you to make me smaller.”
He cried.
I did not.
That surprised me.
I had cried for months.
In the hospital.
In therapy.
In my shower.
At traffic lights.
While throwing away the metal thermos I used for my own coffee because I
could no longer stand the sound of a lid twisting shut.
But not then.
Gregory’s explanation was information.
It was not absolution.
Years later, people still asked why I trusted Hannah.
The answer is that I did not immediately trust her instead of Gregory.
