Page 47 of In at the Deep End

“I don’t regret Callum.”

“Neither do I.”

“But I deserved the chance to choose this life for myself.”

The words found the one place he’d spent fifteen years trying not to look.

“Yes,” he whispered. “You did.”

He slipped his wedding ring from his finger. It suddenly felt far heavier than gold had any right to. He laid it on the worktop between them.

Neither of them reached for it.

“I’m sorry.”

She stared at the ring for a very long time.

“So am I.”

2026

Matt didn’t speak.

He couldn’t.

The food sat forgotten between them, the warmth long since gone from the cartons.

He’d expected heartbreak.

He hadn’t expected that.

He’d imagined Owen coming out would be the moment he’d finally admitted who he was.

Instead, it had been the moment he’d admitted what he’d done to the person he loved most.

Matt gazed across the table. Owen wasn’t looking at him. His eyes rested on nothing in particular, as though he’d drifted back to that kitchen fifteen years earlier.

At last, Owen raised his head and gave Matt a small smile. “I’ve only ever trusted one other person with all of that.”

Matt knew who that was in a heartbeat. “Ben.”

“Yeah.”

“When did you tell him?”

“The night we met.”

Matt blinked. “Seriously?”

“I remember thinking, ‘This is the point where he walks away.’ Instead, he reached across the table and took my hand.”

“And?”

Owen’s eyes become distant. “He said, ‘You’ve spent almost twenty years punishing yourself. I’m not going to help you keep doing that.’”

Matt said nothing.

“He told me I couldn’t change what I’d done, but I could decide what kind of man I wanted to be for the rest of my life.” Owen swallowed. “I asked him if he thought Cyn could ever forgive me.”