Chapter 23 - HADRIAN GETS OLD ENOUGH TO STOP DEFENDING HIMSELF
I was sixty-two when Sorrel asked me to coffee.
She was twenty-seven.
I knew something serious was coming because she paid.
“You’re getting old.”
“Cruel.”
“You were forty when you found me.”
“Yes.”
“Do you still blame yourself?”
“Some.”
“How much?”
I thought.
“Enough to remember. Not enough to pretend I chained you.”
She nodded.
Good answer.
Then:
“I blamed you for years.”
“I know.”
“Even after I understood Aurelia blocked the calls.”
“I know.”
“You left.”
“Yes.”
“I needed you.”
“Yes.”
No excuse.
Then she surprised me.
“I also know you came back.”
My throat tightened.
“That doesn’t erase.”
“No.”
“But it matters.”
I looked away.
She smiled.
“You cry more now.”
“Old-man tear ducts.”
She laughed.
Then:
“Did you ever love Aurelia after you found out?”
“No.”
“Immediately?”
“Whatever I felt died very fast.”
“Do you think that means you didn’t really love her?”
“No.”
She nodded.
“Good.”
She had learned the same hard thing I had.
Real love can exist before knowledge.
Betrayal does not retroactively make every tender moment fake.
May you like
It makes trust wrong.
Different.
