Chapter 8
The roof repair began in January.
June and I moved our early orders to the front of the bakery while the contractor worked above the kitchen. We had saved a deposit from the holiday season, and the first repayment from Megan covered part of the remaining cost.
Seeing workers on the roof made me want to cry.
Mom had trusted me with the bakery. I had spent months fearing I might fail her because someone else thought my work could wait.
June stood beside me at the window.
“She’d be proud of you,” she said.
“Mom?”
“Who else?”
I laughed and wiped my eyes.
Megan agreed to a repayment schedule for the money she still owed. Her lawyer confirmed she had signed my name without permission. The report I made moved forward separately.
She sent one final letter through Priya.
This one did not accuse me of jealousy. She admitted she had sat on Daniel’s lap because she wanted to force him to tell me about the loan. She knew it would embarrass me.
She wrote that she had convinced herself I would eventually forgive her because I always had before.
That sentence stayed with me.
I looked back over twelve years of friendship. There had been lovely moments. There had also been times I apologized to end an argument Megan started. I had called it keeping the peace.
I did not need to say the good years were fake. I needed to stop using them to excuse what she had done now.
Ryan moved into a small apartment near his office. He and Megan were working through their own separation. He told me once, over coffee, that he still cared about her and could no longer trust what she said about money.
“I used to think leaving meant I didn’t try hard enough,” he said.
“I thought that too.”
We sat with our coffee and let the silence be enough. Neither of us needed the other to turn our losses into a new story.
Daniel kept attending counseling. He asked if I would consider meeting with a marriage counselor together.
“I’ll go to a session,” I said. “I’m not promising what comes after.”
“That’s fair.”
At the first meeting, the counselor asked why we had come.
Daniel said, “I broke Claire’s trust.”
I said, “I want to know whether I can be honest with him without being treated like an obstacle.”
The counselor asked Daniel what he had wanted when he helped Megan.
“I wanted someone to think I was generous and bold,” he said. “Claire would have asked how we’d fix the roof. She would have been right. I didn’t want to hear it.”
I looked at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me you felt unseen?”
“I was afraid you’d tell me I was wrong.”
“I might have been defensive,” I admitted. “I would have wanted a chance to listen.”
He nodded.
We went to several sessions. Some days I left feeling hopeful. Other days I felt the weight of the loan agreement again.
I learned that understanding why Daniel had made his choices did not mean I had to accept the marriage as it had been.
One evening, after a session, we walked to my car.
“I want to come home,” he said.
“I know.”
“What do you want?”
I took a long breath.
“I want to stop waiting for the old version of us to come back.”
He looked hurt, but he let me finish.
“If we try again, it has to be a life where we both tell the truth before someone else forces it out.”
“Yes.”
“And I need more time.”
“I’ll give it to you.”
We stood in the parking lot while cars passed.
Then I went home alone.
Tasha was waiting up with a bowl of soup. I told her I had not made a decision.
“You don’t have a deadline,” she said.
“I know. I’m finally starting to believe it.”
That night, I slept without checking my phone for messages from Megan.
May you like
In the morning, the contractor called.
The roof was finished.
