15-05-2021-052358It-Ends-with-Us

reassurance from him. The anticipation of what I’m about to find out
is making me nauseous.
“No one is dying. I’m not cheating on you. What I’m about to tell
you isn’t going to hurt you, okay? It’s all in the past. But Allysa thinks
you need to know. And... so do I.”
I nod and he releases my hands. He’s the one up and pacing now,
back and forth behind the coffee table. It’s as if he’s having to work
up the courage to find his own words and that’s making me even more
nervous.
He sits in the chair again. “Lily? Do you remember the night we
met?”
I nod.
“You remember when I walked out onto the roof? How angry I
was?”
I nod again. He was kicking the chair. It was before he knew
marine-grade polymer was virtually indestructible.
“Do you remember my naked truth? What I told you about that
night and what caused me to be so angry?”
I lean my head down and think back to that night and to all the
truths he told me. He said marriage repulsed him. He was only into
one-night stands. He never wanted to have kids. He was mad about a
patient he’d lost that night.
I start nodding. “The little boy,” I said. “That’s why you were mad,
because a little boy died and it upset you.”
He blows out a quick breath of relief. “Yes. That’s why I was mad.”
He stands up again and it’s like I see his entire soul crumble. He
presses his palms against his eyes and fights back tears. “When I told
you about what happened to him, do you remember what you said to
me?”
I feel like I’m about to cry and I don’t even know why yet. “Yes. I
told you I couldn’t imagine what something like that will do to that
little boy’s brother. The one who accidentally shot him.” My lips start
to tremble. “And that’s when you said, ‘It’ll destroy him for life, that’s
what it’ll do.’ ”
Oh, God.
Where is he going with this?