The Wife Between Us(112)

I make myself visible as I cross the street and approach her.

She turns around even before I call her name; she must have sensed my presence.

“Emma! What are you doing here?”

She was honest with me, even though it wasn’t easy. If she hadn’t fought so hard to save me, I would have married Richard. But she didn’t stop there. She risked her life to expose him, preventing him from preying on yet another woman.

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

Her brow creases. She waits.

“And I wanted to show you a picture.” I hand it to her. “This was my family.”

Vanessa stares at the photograph as I tell my story, beginning with that long-ago October night when I was supposed to be asleep.

Then her head snaps up and she searches my face. “Your eyes.” Her tone is even, measured. “They seemed so familiar.”

“I thought you deserved to know.”

Vanessa hands back the picture. “I’ve been wondering about you. You seemed to materialize out of nowhere. When I tried to look you up online, you didn’t exist until a few years ago. I couldn’t find much more than your address and phone number.”

“Would you rather not have known who I really was?”

She considers this for a moment.

Then she shakes her head. “The truth is the only way to move forward.”

And then, because there is nothing more for either of us to say, I signal for an approaching cab.

I climb into the taxi and twist around to stare out the back window.

I lift my hand.

Vanessa stares at me for a moment. Then she raises her palm, her movement a mirror image of my own.

She turns and walks away from me at the exact moment the cab begins to move, the distance between us growing greater with each breath.