My life had been divided into before and after.
His appeared to have simply continued.
“Nathan, Who Is She?”
I couldn’t wait any longer.
I stepped onto the path.
Reid saw me first.
His expression changed instantly.
Mallory followed his gaze.
I walked toward them.
Every step felt heavier than the last.
When I stopped several feet away, Reid stood.
“Maren.”
Hearing my name from him after three years made my stomach twist.
I looked directly at him.
“Hello, Reid.”
Mallory frowned.
“Reid?”
Neither of us answered.
She looked at him.
“Nathan, what’s going on?”
I almost laughed at the absurdity of it.
Nathan to her.
Reid to me.
Who was he really?
Mallory looked at me.
“Who are you?”
Before Reid could answer, I did.
“I’m his wife.”
Silence.
Mallory stared at him.
“Your what?”
Reid lowered his voice.
“Maren, please.”
“Please what?”
He glanced around nervously.
“Not here.”
I shook my head.
“You lost the right to choose where this conversation happens three years ago.”
Mallory stepped backward.
Her face had gone pale.
“Nathan, you told me you’d never been married.”
Reid closed his eyes briefly.
That told me something important.
Mallory hadn’t known.
She wasn’t part of whatever he had done.
She was another person standing inside a story he had rewritten.
The Question That Mattered Most
Mallory looked at him.
“Is she telling the truth?”
Reid didn’t answer immediately.
Finally, he said:
“It’s complicated.”
I felt something inside me become strangely calm.
“No. It isn’t.”
He looked at me.
“Maren—”
“We were married for nine years.”
Mallory covered her mouth.
I continued.
“And we have a son.”
Her eyes widened.
Reid looked down.
“You have a child?” Mallory asked.
He said nothing.
That silence answered her.
She picked up her handbag.
“I need to leave.”
“Mallory, wait.”
She stepped away from him.
“Don’t.”
Then she walked toward the street.
Reid watched her disappear before turning back to me.
For the first time, he looked less like the confident stranger I had seen in the hotel and more like the man I remembered.
But I didn’t feel comforted.
I felt angry.
“Why?”
He swallowed.
“Maren, there are things you don’t understand.”
“Then explain them.”
He looked toward the water.
“I was overwhelmed.”
I stared at him.
“You were overwhelmed?”
“Everything was falling apart. Work, money, the pressure at home…”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“So you disappeared?”
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“Then how was it supposed to happen?”
He had no answer.
“Did You Ever Think About Bennett?”
I could have asked a hundred questions.
Why change your name?
Why Florida?
Why never call?
Why let me believe I had lost you?
But only one question mattered.
“Did you ever think about Bennett?”
Reid looked away.
That hurt more than anything he could have said.
“Every day.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Maren—”
“Thinking about your child isn’t the same as being his father.”
His face tightened.
“I know.”
“He saw you yesterday.”
Reid froze.
“What?”
“Bennett saw you in the hotel lobby.”
The color disappeared from his face.
“He’s here?”
“Yes.”
Reid took one step toward me.
“Can I see him?”
I stepped back.
“You don’t get to walk back into his life because we happened to cross paths in Florida.”
“He’s my son.”
“And for three years, I was the person answering every question he had about you.”
Reid looked devastated.
For a moment, I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
The Choice Wasn’t Mine Alone
Reid asked again.
“Please let me see him.”
I studied the man standing in front of me.
Part of me wanted to say no forever.
But Bennett wasn’t an object I could hide away to punish his father.
His feelings mattered too.
“I’ll talk to Bennett.”
