Miriam understood.
“He expected people to believe him.”
“Yes.”
For years, they had.
Mark was the charming businessman.
The devoted husband with a terrible illness.
The man everyone admired for staying positive.
I was the exhausted wife who worked too much and worried constantly.
He’d built a story about us.
And he’d made sure I was too busy keeping him alive to notice who was writing it.
After the petition failed, Mark changed tactics.
He sent flowers.
Then chocolates.
Then a handwritten letter.
In it, he admitted he’d made “mistakes” with Celeste.
He insisted their relationship had been emotional rather than physical.
He blamed medication, stress, and fear of death.
He wrote that everything he had done was intended to protect me.
At the bottom, he added:
We can still have the life we dreamed about.
The lottery is our second chance.
I read the letter twice.
