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Every line felt like another admission that the wedding was truly over.
“I was supposed to get married,” Clare said.
Her voice was quiet enough that only the three of them could hear.
Emma’s father did not react with the exaggerated sympathy Clare had come to dread.
He simply said, “Supposed to?”
“Three months from now.”
She swallowed.
“He changed his mind.”
That was technically true.
It also felt dishonest.
Clare was tired of polished language.
“No,” she corrected herself.
“He cheated on me.
For six months.
Then he told me he couldn’t marry me.”
Emma’s father looked down for a moment.
“I’m sorry.”
“He said I was never around.
I work a lot.
I know I do.
He said the other woman made him feel seen.”
The words sounded different outside her own head.
Smaller somehow.
Not less painful.
Just less convincing.
Emma’s father rested both hands around his coffee cup.
“Can I say something without pretending I know your relationship?”
Clare nodded.
“Being lonely in a relationship can be real,” he said.
“Feeling neglected can be real.
But those feelings don’t secretly date a coworker for six months.
A person does that.”
Clare stared at him.
He continued carefully.
“Maybe there were problems.
Most relationships have them.
But a problem and a betrayal aren’t the same thing.
He still made a choice.”
Clare looked away toward the tall café windows.
For four weeks, people had told her Marcus was horrible.
Her best friend had called him words Clare would never repeat in front of Emma.
Her mother had declared that Marcus would regret losing her.
Her sister had offered to mail him the wedding registry piece by piece out of spite.
None of it had reached the part of Clare that still believed Marcus’s explanation.
But this did.
Maybe because the man across from her was not trying to make her feel better.
He was separating two things Clare had accidentally fused together.
The relationship might have needed attention.
Marcus had still chosen dishonesty.
Clare looked down at the notebook again.
“I keep thinking if I’d come home earlier.
If I’d turned down more projects.
If I’d noticed sooner.”
“Would that have made honesty impossible for him?”
She frowned.
