Ch. 16: The Other Side of Truth

Rain traced long silver lines down the window, and somewhere a clock counted the hours.

There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do. There was a history between them that neither would name, written in the things they did not do.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Emily said. "I'm asking you to listen." She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

"I'm not asking you to forgive me," Emily said. "I'm asking you to listen." "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. She remembered the first time, and the last, and all the ordinary days in between that had somehow mattered more.

"You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to. "You shouldn't have come," he said, and the words landed softer than they were meant to.

The conversation turned, the way conversations do, from the easy things to the ones that mattered. Money could buy a great many things, he had learned, but never the one thing that was wanted most.

They did not speak for a long moment. Some silences carry more than words ever could, and this was one of them.