I hope you ask yourself why he came back.
I looked at Danny sleeping beside me.
“Who are you?” I whispered.
He shifted. “Sweetheart?”
“Nothing. Go back to sleep.”
I slipped out of bed and drove to Helen’s.
Why now?
***
She opened the door in her robe.
“I knew you’d come.”
“Tell me everything.”
She sat down.
Then she destroyed Danny’s story.
I drove to Helen.
“He didn’t spend fifty-five years searching for you.”
“What happened?”
“Margaret happened.”
“The nurse?”
“Danny met her while he was recovering. They started a relationship.”
She destroyed Danny’s story.
“And?”
“She got pregnant.”
I felt something inside me go cold. “No.”
“Yes.”
“He was married to me.”
They started a relationship.
“I know.”
“Did she know?”
Helen hesitated. “Eventually. They never legally married, but they spent almost fifty years together. They had children. A home. Everyone in their life knew Margaret as his wife.”
“Except me.”
Helen looked down. “Except you.”
They never legally marrie.
“Then why did his friend tell me Danny was dead?”
“Because Danny asked him to.”
I couldn’t speak.
Helen’s voice cracked. “He didn’t lose you. He left you.”
I stood up. “You knew?”
Except you.
“Not immediately. My husband told me later.”
“And you said nothing?”
“I thought you’d survive a dead hero better than a husband who chose someone else.”
“That wasn’t your decision!”
“I know.”
He didn’t lose you. He left you.
“You let me wait!”
“I thought I’d tell you eventually.”
“Eventually? Helen, it’s been fifty-five years.”
Her eyes filled. “Every year I waited made it harder. After five years, I had to admit I’d lied to you for five years. After twenty, I had to admit I’d watched you build your whole life around that lie.”
“And after fifty-five?”
That wasn’t your decision!
She looked down. “I was a coward.”
For once, she didn’t try to defend herself.
I hated what she’d done. But at least now I understood it.
Then another question hit me.
“If Danny chose Margaret, why is he in my house now?”
Every year I waited made it harder.
Helen hesitated. “I don’t know everything.”
She wrote a number on a piece of paper.
“But he does.”
I looked at it. “Who is he?”
“Call him.”
Why is he in my house now?
My mind flashed back to Danny turning his phone facedown.
‘Someone from my old life.’
Suddenly, I wondered how much of that old life he’d been trying to keep from me.
***
The conversation lasted twelve minutes.
When I hung up, Helen asked, “Are you canceling tomorrow?”
Someone from my old life.
“No.”
