Chapter 11 - The Man Who Came Before
Sarah called Thomas from Robert’s desk.
“Did you meet him?”
Thomas didn’t ask who she meant.
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
“When?”
“A few months before he died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me last night?”
“You’d already had so much.”
“That is not your decision.”
“You’re right.”
She held the phone tighter.
“No more deciding what I can handle.”
“No more.”
Thomas explained that Robert had come alone.
He was thinner than Thomas expected. He’d climbed the stairs slowly and apologized for needing a minute to catch his breath.
“He brought photographs,” Thomas said.
Sarah looked at the framed graduation picture.
“Of me?”
“School pictures. College. One where you were holding a fish and looking furious.”
Despite everything, she laughed.
“That fish bit me.”
“He told me.”
Thomas had asked whether Sarah hated him.
Robert had said he didn’t think Sarah knew enough to hate him.
Then they’d compared stories.
One man had been told to stay away.
The other had been told the first had already chosen to leave.
“Robert wanted to speak to your mother first,” Thomas said. “He said he needed to help you hear it somewhere you felt safe.”
“And you agreed.”
“Yes.”
“Then he died.”
“Yes.”
Sarah looked at Victoria.
“Did Thomas contact you afterward?”
Victoria wiped beneath one eye.
“This is becoming cruel.”
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell him?”
“That you were grieving.”
Thomas’s voice came through the speaker.
“She told me you knew everything. That Robert had told you. That your answer hadn’t changed.”
Sarah lowered the phone.
The room seemed suddenly too small for all the missing years.
Victoria took a step forward.
“I lost my husband, too.”
Sarah stared at her.
“I know.”
“You have no idea what that year was like for me.”
“I was here.”
“I was trying to keep us together.”
“You were keeping the story together.”
Victoria recoiled as if Sarah had slapped her.
Daniel picked up Robert’s letter and placed it carefully back in the envelope.
Sarah stood.
“I’m taking these.”
“You’re not leaving with his papers.”
“They’re addressed to me.”
Victoria moved toward the desk.
Sarah stepped back.
The old camera fell from the open drawer and hit the carpet.
Nobody bent to pick it up.
May you like
Then Victoria said the thing that changed Sarah’s face completely.
“After everything I paid for, you owe me more than this.”
