Over the years, he’d dated countless women, promised them marriage, and abandoned them when someone new caught his attention.
Once, I overheard him laughing with a friend.
“Women are easy to fool. You just need to tell them what they want to hear.”
My mother despised his behavior.
“Robert doesn’t understand boundaries,” she frequently warned me.
But he’d always treated me kindly.
He bought me birthday presents, helped pay my college tuition, and sometimes called me his favorite girl.
I’d never questioned his affection.
Until my mother’s final night.
As I sat beside her hospital bed, she suddenly grabbed my wrist.
“If Robert ever asks you to spend the night at his house, don’t agree. Promise me!”
“Mom, what are you talking about?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“He’s been waiting for something for twenty-seven years. Something I’ve never allowed him to do.”