Part 2: My millionaire husband left me nothing in his will after 48 years of marriage except a note with an address — when I arrived there, what I saw made me fall to my knees.

Nathan looked toward the window.

"I contacted him."

"And?"

"He asked to meet."

"Did you?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

Nathan hesitated.

"At your original store."

My breath caught.

The little hardware store.

The place where Thomas and I had spent the earliest years of our marriage.

The place where I had painted shelves, balanced accounts, and slept on bags of insulation when we couldn't afford to close during renovations.

Thomas had brought his secret son there.

To the place that belonged to our memories.

"Did he tell you about me?"

"Yes."

"What did he say?"

Nathan swallowed.

"He said you were the best thing that ever happened to him."

I turned away.

Those words would have meant everything to me two weeks earlier.

Now they felt like another cruelty.

***

For the next hour, Nathan told me things I had never known.

Thomas had quietly helped him finish law school after they reconnected.