All day she anticipated his response to her “I love you,” but he let the confession go without a word. Perhaps it was for the best. She’d been obedient to God’s whisper, “Love well.” The rest was up to him.
She turned at the sound of the lift bell. The doors opened and Stephen stepped out, making her heart flutter, still, as he made his way toward her with his uneven, booted gait.
“Hey, you,” she said, meeting him at the garden’s edge. “Thank you for coming.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” His eyes drifted over her. “You spent the afternoon in the home of a stranger for me yesterday.” Despite his casual demeanor, he was guarded. His cloaked gaze gave her no access to his heart.
“Want to sit?” She motioned to the perimeter tables.
Stephen walked her to a table in the front corner. Not far from where he proposed. Did he remember? “The old Braithwaite. Eyes on the city.” He propped his arms on the guard rail, leaning into the breeze. “You can see every corner of the city from up here.”
“Stephen.” Corina dropped her messenger bag to the table, reaching inside for the annulment. “I leave in the morning, so let me do what I came here to do.”
He returned to her, sitting on the tabletop, feet on the bench seat. “All right.”
“First, thank you for telling me about Carlos. I have made up my mind to tell my father. I’m sorry, but I feel I must. But I promise I won’t tell anyone else. You have my word.”
He nodded, the wind jerking his dark locks from side to side.
“Second . . .” She’d rehearsed this moment over and over, but going through with it proved harder than she imagined. “Here.” She handed him the white legal envelope that contained theirend. “All signed. You came through on my demand, so I’m following up on yours.”
He hesitated, then reached for the envelope. “T–thank you.”
She sighed, brushing a thin strand of hair from her eyes. “I didn’t want to sign it. I hated the language of the annulment. It says our marriage never existed. And you checked the ‘Mistake’ box.” She looked at him, but his gaze was averted. “I don’t think any of it was fake or a mistake.”
“I had little choice. The ‘death of my wife’s brother’ wasn’t an option. Otherwise, I’d have to file for a divorce, but I don’t think either of us wanted that, Corina.”
She leaned against the edge of the table next to him, willing the full force of her confession on him. “I don’t like that you decided my heart for me. What I would or would not think, feel, or want. You had no right.”
“You had no right to demand answers of me about Carlos’s death.” He only held her gaze for a second. “But I yielded to your demand.”
“Did you want the annulment signed that much? To break the law, deliver classified information?”
He held up the envelope. “Would you have signed it if I didn’t?”
“Probably. Eventually. But I meant it when I said ‘I love you.’ ”
He didn’t respond, simply stared at the envelope. Corina weighed her next confession. One she’d thought a lot about, prayed about, considered as important as ‘I love you.’ ”
“S–Stephen?”
He glanced up.
She drew a deep breath. “I forgive you.”
“W–hat?”
The tears . . . oh the dratted tears. “I–I forgive you.” Were there any more pieces of her heart to break? But each pulsing, shattered piece affirmed her proclamation. “I–I forgive you. I don’t see my brother’s blood on your hands.”
His shoulders shimmied as he looked toward the edge of the Braithwaite.
Corina stroked his hand. “For what it’s worth, you should forgive yourself too.”
“Is that why you brought me up here?” He adjusted his position on the bench, moving slightly away from her. “Show me up? Be the bigger man, as it were?” The question, laced with accusation, stung.
“No, I just wanted us to end on a good note. Who knows if our paths won’t cross again.”
He was silent, jaw tense and taut, then, “Last night . . . I couldn’t stop thinking about Bird and how he had a child on the way, Corina. A son. You didn’t know Bird, but a wife, a family? All he wanted in life. And to play rugby on weekends.” The comment was not random, but filled with calculated emotion. “If he’d had known, would he have acted differently that day? I’d be dead like the rest if he’d not fallen on me.”
