He Protected My Baby's Killer, So I Left Him novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: The Youngest

The youngest of the four came to my aunt's shop at nine the next night, in the rain, without a coat.

The bell stuck on its first ring, and I looked up from the register and didn't recognize him for a moment.

He was thin and wet, with his hair plastered down.

He stood just inside the door with his empty hands open.

My aunt was already moving down the aisle with the push broom.

"Wait," I said.

She stopped, and looked at me, and kept the broom where it was.

"Five minutes," she said, and went to the back.

I came around the counter.

He had carried my groceries up to our condo three times a week for six years.

He had been the one who cried at my engagement dinner, and said it was because he was happy for us.

"I won't come any closer," he said. "I know I shouldn't be here."

"Say what you came to say."

He took a breath that shook.

"I told you that you'd have more. In the hospital. I handed you that line and walked out."

"I remember."

"I said it because I'd been saying it to myself for twelve years. I've told myself that every time I looked at Carina. You'll have more years, you'll get over it, it'll get easier." His mouth twisted. "It didn't. Not once. And then I said it to you, and I heard it come out of me, and I wanted to walk into the bay."

"Is this an apology?"

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