Chapter 10
Verena asked to see Milo.
He said no.
That simple.
She accepted.
Good.
Then she asked to see me.
I agreed once.
Neutral sitting room.
No ring.
No engagement performance.
She looked thinner.
Not important.
“I heard you found what Rowena wanted.”
“Yes.”
“So I was used.”
“Yes.”
She looked hurt.
I waited.
Then:
“And I used her too.”
Better.
She had wanted permission to remove Evelyn from our shared life.
Rowena gave her a moral-sounding reason.
Evelyn secretly wanted distance.
The grave was unhealthy.
The belongings needed closure.
Verena swallowed all of it because it matched what she already wanted.
“Did you ever think about asking me to move the urn?”
“I did.”
“What happened?”
“I imagined you saying no.”
Again.
Everyone rehearsing my answers without me.
I said:
“That was becoming a pattern around me.”
She looked up.
“Because you’re frightening.”
Fair.
“Not to you.”
She laughed bitterly.
“You think that?”
I thought.
Maybe I had been wrong.
I spoke calmly.
Controlled rooms.
Ended arguments by becoming quiet.
People interpreted that as final judgment.
Verena had sometimes feared disappointing me.
Still—
she chose deception.
Both.
“I should have made disagreement easier.”
Her eyes filled.
“And I should have disagreed.”
Exactly.
No false symmetry.
Different responsibilities.
Then she asked:
“Would you have married me if I had said I couldn’t live with Evelyn’s urn in the house?”
I thought carefully.
“Maybe.”
That hurt her more than certainty.
Possibility.
Lost because she never tested truth.
May you like
We ended there.
No reunion.
