It turned out he was asking her to finally stop lying.
I was still reading when someone knocked on the door.
It was Susan.
She hadn’t run away.
She had simply spent the entire morning sitting in the café across from the hotel.
When I opened the door, she didn’t even try to smile.
“Did you read it?”
I didn’t want to slap her.
I didn’t even want to scream.
That was somehow worse.
I simply asked,
“How many times did you sit at my table, look me in the eyes, and remember that you had slept with my husband?”
Her face went pale.
“Every time.”
“And when he died and I cried in your arms?”
Susan’s eyes filled with tears.
“Every minute.”
“And when you told me Michael loved me?”
“He did love you.”
For the first time, I raised my voice.
“Don’t defend him.”
Susan fell silent.
Then she sat down in the chair and told me something that wasn’t in the letter.
“I fell in love with him.”
The room became completely silent.
“And him?”
Susan looked down at the floor.
“I thought he loved me too. But when I told him he had to choose, he ended everything that same day. He said he would never leave you.”
Was that supposed to comfort me?
It didn’t.
I asked,
“Then why did you stay in my life for another twelve years?”
For a long time, she didn’t answer.
Then she said,
“Because I had already lost my marriage. I had lost Michael. If I lost you too, I would have had nothing left. And yes, that was selfish.”
For the first time, she wasn’t making excuses.
Susan told me that over the years, the shame she carried whenever she looked at me had become heavier than the secret itself.
When Michael became sick, she had decided to tell me immediately.
But Michael asked her to wait.
He was afraid the final months of his life would be spent watching our family fall apart.
And Susan agreed.
Once again, they had made the decision for me.
I stood up and opened the hotel room door.
Susan understood.
She stood up too.
When she reached the doorway, she turned around.
“Yesterday I said it was our last photo as friends because I knew that after today, you would never call me your friend again.”
