Atonement(78)

“What’s that?” he inquired in a quiet voice.

“You can forgive yourself and promise never to break my heart. It’s already been broken but somehow I can’t fault you or Liam. It happened and all we can do is go from here. Don’t you agree?”

“Yes,” he whispered.

“And listen to me, you won’t tell anyone about this. This will be left between Liam, you and I, you got that? You are stronger than that and you will make a wonderful father our unborn child and a terrific husband to me.”

We separated and he stumbled to the kitchen counter where he grabbed several Kleenex and cleaned his face. His nose and cheeks were red with emotion and his eyes were bloodshot but he looked human.

“Oui, c'est mal, si mal, mais je pardon toi,” I said in a low voice before I embraced him.

Yes, it’s bad, very bad but I forgive you.

“It can’t be that easy, Deirdre. He was your father and Caitlyn’s too. He was also your mother’s husband.”

“My mother has been dead for a very long time, Colin,” I replied in a cold tone.

The aftermath would be something we would have to face in the future but at that moment, I needed to live for the now and remember to breathe. This incident had changed our destiny but it was something that would have to be dealt with another day. Until then, we had the here and now, and each other.