Page 92 of My Husband’s New Fiancée

I want to believe him. It would be so easy. But we’re so broken that I’m no longer sure there’s still a future left for us.

“I didn’t mean a single word I said to you,” he pleads.

He pauses, as though carefully choosing the right words.

“That’s not an excuse. And it never will be.”

He minimizes nothing, doesn’t defend himself, doesn’t bargain.

Maybe that’s what finally forces me to turn toward him.

He takes both my hands and lifts them to his lips. A slow kiss, almost trembling, without breaking eye contact.

“Meeting you turned my whole life upside down. Marrying you...” His voice roughens slightly. “the greatest honor of my life. Do you believe me?”

I look at him.

The man I missed every single day for two years, even when I wasn’t sure I could trust him.

This man who hurt me with words I may never truly forget.

Love and anger still live in the same place inside me.

The wound still burns.

But his voice right now doesn’t sound like a man pretending. It sounds like a man terrified.

Terrified I’ll say no. Terrified of losing me a second time.

“I believe you... but that doesn’t erase everything that happened. You hurt me. Deeply.”

He swallows hard, absorbs my answer, but doesn’t look away.

I’m still angry with him. Maybe I will be for a long time. But being angry with him never meant I stopped loving him.

Something slowly loosens inside me.

Not healing. Far from it. But a first step.

Acceptance of what happened—and of the fact that neither of us can change it.

I sit back down, ready to listen.

Someone knocks at the door.

Dante goes to open it, then returns carrying a tray with coffee. He sets it down on the low table. Without a word, he pours me a cup and hands it to me in an almost hesitant gesture, as though he’s no longer sure he still has the right to take care of me.

“Drink.”

One single word.

And yet it contains everything he doesn’t know how to say.

I take the cup and cautiously sip from it. The warmth spreads slowly through me, loosening a knot I hadn’t even realized was there.

He picks up his own cup and sits across from me.

We drink in silence, like we used to.