Before He Became My Husband
Chapter 04 - Before He Became My Husband
The photograph was sixteen years old.
I knew because Richard looked younger.
His hair was longer.
His face was thinner.
And on his left wrist was the leather watchband he had stopped wearing years before we met.
He was standing beside Caroline.
My sister.
His arm was around her waist.
They looked happy.
Not like acquaintances.
Not like strangers who happened to be in the same photograph.
They looked like two people in love.
I sat down.
"Where did you find that?"
Lucy held the photograph against her chest.
"Mom kept it in a box."
Richard reached for it.
Lucy backed away.
"Don't touch me."
Something in her voice broke my heart.
Richard stopped.
I looked at him.
"You told me you met Caroline once. At our wedding."
"Evelyn, listen—"
"How long did you know her?"
He said nothing.
I turned to Lucy.
"Sweetheart, go back upstairs."
She didn't move.
"Did my mom do something bad?" she asked.
"No."
The answer surprised even me.
For nine years, I had told myself Caroline had betrayed our family.
That she had stolen money.
That she had run because guilty people run.
But standing there, watching Richard refuse to answer the simplest question of his life, I realized something painful.
I had never heard Caroline's side.
Not once.
After Lucy returned upstairs, Richard finally spoke.
He admitted that he and Caroline had dated.
Years before he met me.
According to him, the relationship had lasted six months and ended badly.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it didn't matter."
"She was my sister."
"Exactly."
I laughed bitterly.
"That's your explanation?"
He told me Caroline had become obsessed with him after their breakup.
He claimed she resented our relationship.
Then he said something I would remember forever.
"Some people are simply born jealous, Evelyn."
It sounded reasonable.
Almost.
Except those were the exact words my mother had once used in a letter.
A letter Richard claimed Caroline had written.
Suddenly, I wondered how many voices from my past had actually been Richard's.
The next morning, I drove Lucy to the blue house.
The brass key opened the front door.
Dust covered everything.
But inside Caroline's childhood bedroom, someone had been living recently.
There was food in the cabinet.
A child's drawing on the wall.
And beside the bed stood a small desk.
On it sat a stack of newspaper clippings.
Every article was about me.
My elections.
My court victories.
My awards.
My life.
Caroline had been watching from a distance for years.
Under the clippings was a sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
Inside was one sentence.
May you like
I tried to tell you about Richard before your wedding.
He made sure you never got the letter.
