Marcus made a sound I’ll never forget. Like something inside him finally cracked all the way open.
He unzipped his gym bag with shaking hands. Out came Claire’s leather wallet, worn soft at the corners. The braided bracelet. The photo of Claire and Ben squinting into the sun.
Marcus made a sound I’ll never forget.
And last, a folded square of paper, brown at the edges from water.
“She wrote this on the boat,” Marcus said. “I’ve never read it. She made me promise that was for Ben.”
I took it with fingers that didn’t feel like mine.
I already knew, before I opened it, that I was holding the last words my wife ever wrote.
“She wrote this on the boat.”
Ben sat in the middle, turning Claire’s bracelet over in his small hands. Marcus still wouldn’t meet my eyes.
I couldn’t figure out where to put the anger. It kept slipping. I read the note aloud.
