Edward sighed.
“She usually is.”
Then he looked back at me.
“I’m sorry, Rachel.”
“For what part?”
“All of it.”
He swallowed.
“The lie. The years. Being afraid and dealing with that fear by creating something worse. Most of all, I’m sorry I didn’t trust you enough to let you know the person I actually became.”
“We’ll talk tonight.”
He nodded.
Then he left for his presentation.
Margaret came into the office and sat across from me.
“For the record,” she said, “I told him this was a terrible idea from week one.”
“So I’ve heard.”
“He was terrified you would leave.”
“He should’ve been more worried I’d discover it through our ten-year-old.”
“That’s fair.”
I looked at her.
“Why did you help him hide it?”
Margaret thought before answering.
“Because he was the best architect I had ever worked with.”
She looked toward the office door.
“I wanted to build this firm with him. And I kept telling myself his marriage wasn’t my business.”
She sighed.
“I was wrong to let it continue this long.”
“You eventually gave him the ultimatum.”
“I should’ve given it years ago.”
She glanced at the box.
“Did he explain what those notes mean to him?”
“Yes.”
“In the first year of the company, we were barely surviving.”
She pointed toward his desk.
“One morning he sat right there and read your note.”
“What did it say?”
“I don’t remember.”
She smiled slightly.
“But afterward he said, ‘I remember why I’m doing this.’”
She looked at me.
“He doubts himself more than you probably realize. He can finish something extraordinary and immediately convince himself it isn’t good enough.”
“The notes interrupt that?”
“Exactly.”
I looked at the box.
“And the food?”
“Robert is real.”
She laughed softly.
“And he genuinely loves your sandwiches.”
I almost smiled.
“So tomorrow, Robert is going hungry?”
“I suspect Edward can afford to buy Robert breakfast now that his secret is gone.”
That finally made me laugh.
I spent the afternoon inside my husband’s office.
I didn’t read every note.
There were far too many.
But I read enough to watch our marriage move backward through time.
Jamie being born.
School mornings.
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