I lit the candles.
Everybody sang. Benjamin cried at the noise. Abigail tried to grab the flame and Ellen caught her hand.
Afterward, while everybody was eating cake on the patio, Margaret walked over to the fence where I was standing.
She handed me a cup of coffee.
“You’ve been at every single visit,” she said. “For a year.”
“I know.”
“You’ve never been late.”
“I know.”
“Ellen says you swaddle better than she does now.”
I laughed.
“Hector taught me. A guy in my class. He has four kids.”
Margaret looked out at the twins in their high chairs. Covered in blue and pink frosting.
“I’m not going to get back together with you, Nate,” she said quietly. “I need you to know that.”
“I know,” I said. “I never thought you would.”
“But I’m glad you’re their dad.”
I couldn’t say anything.
She was quiet for a while.
“There’s one thing I’ve wanted to ask you,” she said. “For a year.”
“Anything.”
“That night. On the boat. When Daniel called. What were you thinking?”
I thought about Dr. Riggs’s office. About the explanation.
“I was thinking that if I left, she wouldn’t admire me anymore,” I said. “And I was more afraid of losing that than of losing you. That’s the whole truth, Margaret. There’s no better version of it.”
She nodded slowly.
“Thank you,” she said. “For not making it pretty.”
“You asked me for honesty fifteen years ago,” I said. “I’m sorry it took me this long.”
She looked at me for a long moment.
Then she went back to the patio to wipe frosting off our daughter’s face.
Sophia Rivers is an experienced News Content Editor with a sharp eye for detail and a passion for delivering accurate and engaging news stories. At TheArchivists, she specializes in curating, editing, and presenting news content that informs and resonates with a global audience.
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