Chapter 31

How to re-assure him, though? How could I possibly explain why I'd done what I'd done? How could I show him that I didn't care who Jean slept with – not NOW, at any rate – what I cared about was honesty? What I needed was the truth; not to have my eyes blinded by what I wanted to be but opened to what truly was. How could I explain that the pain and rage I felt wasn't directed at my wife's relationship with her brother but rather that she'd kept it from me, never giving me a chance to form an opinion of it? How could I let him know that the deepest cut of all was that I'd been lured into believing I was finally part of a family, something I desperately wanted with every fiber of my being, only to have it ripped from me in single moment?

The bailer was loud, but I was louder. I'm not a person who opens up; I don't share what's inside. Oh, I'll share my life, things that happened, but not how I feel – at least, not easily. Amber had been there, at one time. I'd trusted her enough to let