Chapter 3
Series 1 Chapter 3
I held the photograph between us.
“What did ‘Forever’ mean?”
Luke rubbed a hand over his face. “We were teenagers.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“It was something stupid kids wrote on pictures.”
Megan looked at the photograph with a soft smile.
“It wasn’t stupid then.”
Luke glanced at her. “Megan.”
“What?” she asked. “Sarah deserves the truth.”
The way she said my name made my stomach tighten.
Not cruelly. Almost kindly.
“We thought we were going to get married once,” she said.
The room went silent.
I looked at Luke. “You planned to marry her?”
“We were kids.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it was almost twenty years ago.”
Megan leaned against the dresser. “We had our children’s names picked out. We were going to get married after college and buy a little house near the lake.”
She laughed as though it were an embarrassing childhood game.
Luke didn’t laugh.
Neither did I.
“All this time, you told me she was your high school girlfriend.”
“She was.”
“You left out the part where she was supposed to become your wife.”
“It didn’t happen,” Luke said.
“No,” Megan added. “I left.”
Luke’s eyes moved to her.
The look lasted only a second, but I saw the boy she had left and the life they had once imagined.
Megan took the photograph from my hand.
“You used to wear this jacket every time you fixed my bike,” she said to Luke. “And that terrible car my father bought me.”
“The car wasn’t terrible. You never changed the oil.”
“I didn’t know cars needed oil.”
They shared a brief smile.
Then Megan looked at me.
“He’s always liked rescuing people.”
She knew that about him.
More importantly, she knew how to use it.
Megan needed help, and Luke became necessary.
I had spent years making our home steady. I handled appointments, bills, broken appliances, and bad days without turning each one into an emergency.
I thought being dependable made me a good partner.
Beside Megan, it only made me easier to leave waiting.
“I should go,” Megan said. “I don’t want to make this worse.”
This time she picked up her purse.
Luke carried the jacket to the door for her.
“This isn’t your fault,” he said.
I almost laughed.
Even now, his first concern was making sure Megan left without feeling guilty.
At the door, she touched his arm.
“Call me if you need anything.”
Then she walked outside.
Luke closed the door and turned to me.
“You didn’t have to humiliate her.”
“She came into my house after you abandoned my birthday, and you think she’s the one who was humiliated?”
“She was returning my wallet.”
“She was marking her place.”
“You’re making her sound calculating.”
“And you’re still defending her.”
“Megan doesn’t have anyone right now. She just got divorced. She’s alone.”
“She has you. That’s the problem.”
He shook his head. “You’re different.”
“How?”
“You’ve always been able to take care of yourself.”
He lowered his voice, as if he were offering me reassurance.
“You’re strong. You don’t fall apart every time something goes wrong.”
I stared at him.
He meant it as praise.
That was what made it hurt.
“You don’t need me the way she does,” he said.
Megan received his time because she seemed helpless.
I received his absence because I had survived it before.
“Being capable isn’t permission to abandon me.”
“I didn’t abandon you.”
“You left me alone on my birthday. Then you came home and protected the woman you left me for.”
“I came back.”
“And you think that should be enough.”
After Megan left town, I had listened to Luke talk about her for months. I sat beside him in coffee shops and helped him believe his life wasn’t over.
Years later, when he asked me to marry him, I believed he had chosen me.
Now I wondered if I had only been the woman who stayed.
I returned to the suitcase.
I packed enough clothes for more than a week, then added my laptop, work badge, charger, toiletries, and medication.
There would be no reason to come back tomorrow.
I pulled the zipper closed.
I had stayed when Megan left. Somewhere along the way, Luke decided that meant I would stay through anything.
Then I removed my wedding ring.
My finger looked pale beneath it. For one weak second, I wanted to put it back.
Instead, I placed it beside my house key on the dresser.
“What are you doing?” Luke asked.
“I’m leaving.”
“Why are you leaving your ring?”
“Because I won’t wear it while you explain why another woman needs my husband more than I do.”
My phone lit up.
Julia: I’m outside.
I lifted the suitcase.
Luke reached for the handle, but I pulled it away.
“Don’t do this over one bad night.”
“It wasn’t one bad night. It was one clear one.”
I walked downstairs and opened the front door.
Before stepping outside, I looked back.
“What if I don’t come back?”
Luke stood in the hallway, certain he knew me.
“You will.”
I carried my suitcase to Julia’s car.
Luke remained beneath the porch light, waiting for me to change my mind.
He didn’t know I already had.