I thought about it.
“I regret who I gave it to,” I said. “I don’t regret the act itself.”
She nodded.
“Your choice was based on love,” she said. “His choices are based on him. Those things are separate.”
That stuck with me.
He looked older.
The big moment came six months later.
I was making grilled cheese for the kids when my phone buzzed with a link from Hannah.
No message. Just a link.
I tapped it.
Local news site. Headline: “Local Man Charged in Embezzlement Scheme.”
Daniel’s mugshot stared back at me.
“What are you looking at?”
He looked older. Angrier. Smaller.
Ella wandered into the kitchen.
“What are you looking at?” she asked.
“Nothing you need to see,” I said quickly, locking my phone.
Later, after bedtime, I stared at that photo again.
Once, I’d held his hand in a hospital bed and promised to grow old with him.
