“You weren’t responsible for his lie.”
She looked relieved and guilty at the same time.
“No. But I was the reason he kept a secret from you.”
I stood and walked to the window.
Nathan was visible through the glass wall outside.
He was sitting alone.
He looked exhausted.
I asked my lawyer, “Can we postpone today?”
He nodded. “Yes.”
I didn’t cancel the divorce. Not that day.
I walked out and told Nathan, “We need to talk.”
Nathan followed me outside.
We sat on a bench near the courthouse.
For a long time, neither of us spoke.
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Then I said, “You should have told me.”
“I tried.”
“You could’ve told me there was something serious you couldn’t explain yet.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Instead, you told me your mother was sick.”
He looked ashamed. “I panicked.”
“And then when I accused you of cheating, you still didn’t tell me.”
“Yvette had asked me not to.”
“Her privacy didn’t require you to let your wife believe you were having an affair.”
“I understand that now.”
“What were you afraid of?”
He took a long breath. “Everything.”
He said he had discovered a daughter he never knew existed.
He was angry at Hannah.
He was grieving what Hannah had kept from him and all the years he had lost with Yvette.
He was terrified Yvette would disappear.
He was terrified I would think he had lied about his past.
He was terrified Diane was right, and Yvette might not really be his.
“So instead you lied about something else.”
“Yes.”
“That was stupid.”
“Extremely.”
For the first time in months, I almost smiled.
We postponed the hearing.
Then we did something I should have allowed months earlier.
We talked.
I met Yvette properly a few weeks later.
It was still awkward. She apologized again.
I told her to stop.
She had lost her mother.
And found a father.
She walked into our lives, and our marriage almost blew up.
She had enough to carry.
