Chapter 2

I lay in bed that night, staring at the ceiling.

The BBQ, Mark's public confession to Jessica, it all replayed in my mind.

Then other memories started to surface, things from our past life.

Mark proposed to me right after Jessica got engaged to her first husband, Tom.

I remembered thinking it was sweet, him wanting to settle down at the same time.

He' d said he wanted kids soon.

I' d been thrilled.

Jessica had announced her first pregnancy not long after her engagement.

Were those things connected?

My perfect marriage, sixty years of it, started to crack in my memory.

Was his devotion to me real, or was I just... convenient?

The thought made me sick.

The next few weeks were torture.

Harmony Creek was a small town, impossible to avoid anyone.

Mark was everywhere with Jessica.

He bought her flowers, took her on dates to the fancy restaurant in the next county, things he never, ever did for me in our long life together.

He' d always said that stuff was "silly" or a "waste of money."

Now, he was a different man for Jessica.

He' d drive by my house with her in his truck, laughing, her head on his shoulder.

Each time felt like a fresh stab.

He saw me sometimes, at the diner where I worked part-time, or in the grocery store.

He' d give a small, awkward nod, then quickly look away, back to Jessica.

No recognition. No shared secret in his eyes.

Just a polite stranger.

Or worse, someone who knew me but wished he didn't.

The sadness was a constant ache.

The man I loved, the life I cherished, it was all built on a lie.

He hadn't loved me best. He'd settled.

And now, given a second chance, he was going for what he truly wanted.

Jessica.

The realization was a bitter pill.

My past life felt tainted, a long, slow deception.

I started practicing my old guitar more, the one I' d almost forgotten.

The folk songs I used to write and sing in my youth, they felt different now, filled with a new kind of pain.

Music was my only escape.