One truth remained impossible to accept.
My own parents had arranged this.
“And Rosie knew…” I said.
Ben nodded.
“I told her a year in. I couldn’t lie to her anymore. She cried. Then she laughed. Then she said she wanted to keep me anyway.”
He smiled through his tears.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Rosie asked me not to. She said you’d go to war with your parents, that the family would be destroyed. I kept that promise until today, when she asked me to make a new promise.”
Together, we looked down the hallway.
I remembered how Ben brought Rosie flowers every Tuesday without a reason.
How he knew every line from her favorite movie.
Their marriage had never been an act.
Their love was genuine.
But I could not forgive my parents for what they had done.
“I hated you for two whole minutes,” I whispered.
Suddenly, fast footsteps echoed toward us.
I turned and saw the doctor approaching.
Something in his eyes warned me he carried news I was not prepared to hear.
I stood and braced myself against the wall.
The doctor stopped in front of us.
His gaze moved between Ben and me.
Before he could speak, the elevator chimed.
My parents stepped out with their coats folded neatly over their arms.
They spotted us and walked over.
“How is she?” My mother asked.
