I left my wife outside in the freezing cold because my sister yelled, “That woman is using you”; when I opened the balcony door I found a fingerprint, a cigarette butt and an unfinished letter, but what destroyed me the most was knowing who those $8,000 were really for.

Liam lowered his head. “Me neither.”

She took a deep breath, and a tear rolled down her temple. “That was the most painful part.”

Liam sat down next to the bed, but didn’t try to touch her. “I’m not here to ask for your forgiveness today,” he said. “I have no right. I’ve come to tell you that I’m going to confess everything, what Paige did, what Gwen did, and what I did. Because even if the law doesn’t punish me like them, I know I failed you too.”

Nora looked at him in silence. “My mom needs the surgery,” she said after a while.

“It’s already paid for,” Liam replied. “I spoke with the hospital in Detroit. Not to buy your forgiveness, just because it was what I should have done from the beginning, which was to be with you.”

Nora covered her mouth with her hand and she cried silently. Liam also cried.