As the Roses Bloomed Beneath His Feet, I Buried Our Seven-Year Marriage. novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: Buckets

Briggs's POV

Alister texted me at midnight. Come to the house. Now.

I went because I'd been waiting seven years for him to say it.

He was standing in the kitchen with a glass of whiskey he hadn't touched.

"Sit down," he said.

"I'll stand."

"You told her."

"I told her the truth about the mountain."

"I asked you for one thing, Briggs. One." His knuckles whitened on the glass. "You gave me your word three months ago that you'd let it lie."

"You asked me to let you take credit for a rescue I did," I said. "I let it go because I thought it didn't hurt anyone. Then you built her a foundation."

"Carina earned that foundation."

"Carina held your hand in a tent."

"And Lena?" He set the glass down. "What did Lena do, in seven years, to deserve a man who told her the truth?"

I looked at him, and I remembered the street.

The camellias going up through the asphalt, white and thick, all the way to the end of the block.

Alister beside me with the ring in his pocket, watching me watch her.

"You know why I left Denver," I said.

"I know you promised to stay away from her. Seven years, and you kept it." He smiled thinly. "Don't ruin that now."

"You proposed that night because I told you I was going to say something."

"I proposed that night because I loved her."

"No," I said. "You didn't."

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