had a heart condition.”
I froze.
“What condition?”
“I didn’t want to frighten you. I was taking medication. The doctor told me I needed to be careful about physical strain.”
I stared at him.
“That’s why you kept pulling away from me?”
He nodded.
“At first, I was scared. And then every time you came close to me, I thought about what might happen if something went wrong right there beside you. I knew you would blame yourself.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Robert gave a bitter little smile.
“Because I was ashamed.”
“Of me?”
“Of myself.”
His voice cracked.
“Of getting old. Of realizing I wasn’t the same man you married.”
Tears started rolling down my face again.
All that time, I had believed I was the only one terrified of aging.
But the man sleeping beside me had
been living with the same fear.
We simply hadn’t spoken about it.
I reached for his hand.
“I cheated on you.”
Robert didn’t rush to comfort me.
He didn’t say it was okay.
He didn’t tell me to forget about it.
And somehow, I was grateful for that.
He simply said,
“Yes.”
That one word hurt.
Because it was true.
“Do you think you could ever forgive me?”
Robert looked at me for a long time.
“I don’t know.”
I nodded slowly.
That was an honest answer too.
Then he stood up.
For one terrible second, I thought he was leaving.
Instead, he reached for my blanket, gently pulled it higher over my shoulders, and sat back down.
“I’m not leaving tonight. You’re in the hospital.”
“And tomorrow?”
He looked at me.
“Tomorrow, we go home. You tell me everything. And I’ll tell you
