I stopped outside our children’s old rooms. I looked at the family photographs on the walls and the framed picture of Robert and me on our wedding day.
We had been twenty-three and twenty-six then.
He had held my hands and promised that whatever happened, we would face life together.
I touched the frame.
“Was any of it real?” I whispered.
The photograph offered no answer.
The next morning, I received a phone call from Susan.
I nearly let it go to voicemail.
But curiosity, anger, and the desperate need to hear the truth made me answer.
“Hello?”
“Margaret?”
Her voice was smooth and confident.
“Yes.”
“I thought we should speak woman to woman.”
I tightened my grip on the phone.
“After sending me that message, you think we should speak woman to woman?”
“Look, I know you’re upset.”
“Upset?”
“I understand this is difficult, but Robert and I have something special.”
