Chris closed his eyes for a moment.
“That was when I realized I was already losing both of you, even though you were still alive. Because I wasn’t part of your lives.”
Lily walked closer to him.
She was still holding the silver bracelet.
“Did you keep this?”
“Yes. Both of them.”
“Why?”
Chris’s voice broke.
“Because I thought about you every single day.”
Lily was silent for a moment.
Then she said,
“If you thought about us, you should have called.”
Those simple words hurt Chris more deeply than any accusation I could have made.
He lowered his head.
“You’re right.”
The next morning, the children wanted Chris to come to the ocean with us.
I wasn’t going to forgive him simply because he had returned.
But this was no longer a story about him and me.
It was Lily and Ben’s story.
