“For whom?”
“For the family.”
I almost laughed.
“Our family?”
“We were drowning in debt.”
“She was alive, Mark.”
“I know.”
“You let me believe she’d died.”
He closed his eyes.
“You were very sick after the delivery.”
“And you used that.”
“I was frightened.”
I leaned forward.
“So was I.”
He looked at me.
“I didn’t think we could survive.”
I felt something inside me become perfectly still.
“You didn’t think we could survive having a child.”
He nodded.
“Not with everything happening.”
I studied his face.
“Then why didn’t you tell me the truth when the business recovered?”
He swallowed.
“By then, it was too late.”
“Too late for what?”
“To undo it.”
“No, Mark.
It was too late to undo what you’d done.
It wasn’t too late to tell me my daughter was alive.”
He looked away.
I continued.
“You let me celebrate her birthday beside an empty memorial.
