Page 125 of Never Alone
"Say what you came to say, Nicholas."
He nodded.
He took a breath. He held my eyes the way he had held them at every formal dinner for ten years—direct, attentive, the eyes of a man who had practiced being trusted.
"I've been thinking a lot about what's happened. The custody. The case. Everything since you left. I've been thinking, and I've come to a place where I can say this and mean it. I've lost. I've lost cleanly. The judge ruled. The audit confirmed nothing they didn't already know, but enough to give the court pause. The protective order's in place. I'm out of options that don't make my situation worse."
He took another breath.
"So I'm done. I'm going home. I'm putting in for a transfer to the New York office. I'll be out of South Carolina by the end of the month. I'm not going to fight any further. I won't see Noah again unless he's grown and chooses it. I won't see you. I'm letting go."
I didn't move.
"I owe you an apology. I won't deliver one in this bakery. I'm not going to do that to you, and I'm not going to make a scene that you didn't ask for. But I want you to know I'm sorry. And I want you to know I see what you've built here. The bakery. The boy. The man." He paused. "He seems like a good man. He'll take care of you."
He took a step back.
"I hope he makes you happy, Tessa. You deserve everything you get."
He nodded at me. He nodded at Benjie.
He turned and went out. The bell rang on the way.
I stood at the counter with my hand flat on the wood. The bakery was the bakery. The display case was the display case. Benjie was still in the back-room doorway, watching me, with his mouth a tight line.
"Tessa."
"I'm okay."
"You sure?"
"I'm okay, Benjie. Thank you."
He waited a second longer. Then he went back to the case.
I stayed at the counter.
Nicholas didn't apologize. Nicholas didn't let go. Nicholas had never, in ten years of marriage, stood in a doorway and admitted defeat without something on the other side of the admission. Whatever he'd just done in my bakery hadn't been a goodbye. It had been a thing that looked like a goodbye, polished to look like a goodbye, performed for an audience of Benjie and me and a coffee machine.
You deserve everything you get.
It had been a wish, on the surface.
Underneath, it had been a promise.I'm going to make sure you get what you deserve.
I didn't move from the counter for a long time.
The bakery was quiet. The bell didn't ring again.
The dread filled my chest, slowly, the way water fills a basement. It found every low place.
CHAPTER 24
Tessa
We were at Sean's for the last load.
Cole had a list pinned to the side of the fridge—paint, trim, a length of pipe for the upstairs bathroom, a box of brushed nickel cabinet pulls he'd been promising me for two weekends. He'd been working the list down on the days he was off. Today was the last of it. Day off. Noah at school. No reason not to come along.
