“You humiliated us, Tessa.”
“No. I revealed what you buried. You could have divorced Mom if you weren’t happy. You could have let her keep her dignity.”
“We were going to tell you.”
“After the wedding photos? After the cake was eaten?”
Silence.
“She knew, didn’t she?”
“We were separated.”
“You should have done better by her. My mother was the best part of you. Now that she’s gone, we have nothing.”
He said nothing.
That was answer enough.
I salvaged a few tulips from the pile by the shed and drove to the cemetery. They weren’t perfect, but they were alive.
Mason followed.
“I didn’t want you to find out later, Tess.”
“They thought they’d won.”
“But they didn’t. The reality will hit soon enough.”
There was no neat lesson. No tidy forgiveness.
Just tulip bulbs in the ground, dirt under my nails, and silence that didn’t need fixing.
I didn’t get my mother back.
But I didn’t let them bury the truth with her.
The tulips would bloom again in spring.
I wasn’t going to stay in that house. Let them keep the ring.
I had her dresses, her recipes, and everything she gave me that they could never take.
For the first time since the funeral,
I wasn’t angry.
I was done.
