You’re sure?”
“Yes. She lied to me. I’m not pretending she didn’t. But I’m not letting one legal failure rewrite my life. The law can tell me what we weren’t. It doesn’t get to tell me what 60 years were.”
On the drive home, I said, “Your siblings need to hear this.”
She carried it until it became too heavy to confess.
“Do you want me there?”
“No, sweetheart. You’ve carried enough of this. I’ll handle it.”
***
That evening, I called them myself.
I didn’t soften the dates or hide that Irene had known for 46 years.
Polly went quiet.
Joey asked, “Does this change anything about us?”
I called them myself.
“No.”
“About Mom?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She was more afraid than I knew. And I wish she’d trusted me enough to tell me.”
Joey paused.
“Do you still think of her as your wife?”
