Page 102 of Mending Hearts
His dad leans forward slightly. “But you separated?”
Rafe nods once. “Eight years ago,” he says.
The room absorbs that too.
His mom’s expression shifts again—sadness now, layered over the rest. “You stopped loving each other?” she asks softly.
“No,” Rafe and I say at the same time.
We both go quiet.
I take a breath. “I left,” I say, because I won’t let him carry that alone. “I was scared. There were no out players. No road map. And I convinced myself that loving him in secret was hurting him.”
Rafe’s eyes flick to me, sharp.
I hold his gaze. “I saw what it was doing,” I continue. “The hiding. The pressure. The way we were both shrinking to fit into something smaller than we deserved.”
The words taste like truth.
“I thought he deserved better than a half-life,” I say. “Better than a husband who couldn’t stand beside him in daylight.”
Rafe’s jaw clenches. “You don’t get to decide that for me.”
“I know,” I say softly. “I know that now.”
Silence settles again—but it’s thoughtful, not volatile.
“I didn’t leave because I stopped loving him,” I say carefully. “I left because I didn’t know how to be brave enough.”
That lands. His mom’s gaze softens.
Rafe’s dad nods slowly. “Fear makes people do stupid things,” he says.
“Sí,” his mom agrees.
Rafe looks at me like he’s seeing something new.
I know we still need to have our own heart-to-heart. The real one. The messy one about the drinking. About the way he was spiraling, and I didn’t know how to hold him up without losing myself.
I saw him slipping. I saw the alcohol creeping in, night after night. I knew our secret life was part of the weight crushing him. But I also know now that I wasn’t the only reason.
We were both drowning, and I didn’t know how to save us.
“I love him,” I say quietly now, because there’s no hiding here. “I can’t fix what I did. I can’t undo the years. But I want to earn it back. His trust. His love. All of it.”
Rafe inhales sharply.
His mom looks between us like she’s reading a story she already knows the ending of.
His dad’s voice is steady when he speaks. “Love is not something you earn like money,” he says. “But trust…” He nods once. “Trust you build again.”
Rafe glances at him. “You’re taking his side?”
“I am taking the side of love,” his father replies simply.
That hits something deep.
His mom wipes at her eyes once, subtle but real. “You stay,” she says firmly. “Both of you.”
