I shook my head.
The betrayal was too enormous to understand.
But then another realization struck me.
“Why marry someone else?”
Julian looked away.
“I don't know.”
That answer made me angrier than anything else.
“You don't know?”
“He told us he wanted a clean start.”
“A clean start?”
Julian nodded.
I whispered:
“He wanted a clean start so badly that he had to bury me emotionally too?”
Julian didn't answer.
And then the wedding music began.
The ceremony was starting.
Colleen Finally Faced Me
A few moments later, Colleen entered the hallway.
When she saw me, she began to cry.
I stared at her.
For months, I had remembered her as the woman who had cried with me at Adrian's funeral.
She had hugged me.
Comforted me.
Held my hand.
Now I understood that she knew her son was alive.
I felt sick.
“How could you?”
Colleen could barely speak.
“I thought I was protecting him.”
“Protecting him from what?”
She lowered her head.
“I don't know.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“I thought he needed a new life.”
“So you let me bury him?”
She covered her face.
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
She looked at me through tears.
“That if he came back, everything would collapse.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Everything already collapsed.”
She cried harder.
But I wasn't ready to forgive her.
Not then.
Maybe not ever.
Then the music changed.
Everyone began moving toward the ceremony area.