“She told me Marianne died,” he whispered.
Audrey began crying.
“I know.”
He stepped backwards.
His hip struck the counter.
“She called me.”
Audrey looked at him.
“Who?”
“Your aunt.”
He was staring at nothing now.
“She called me from Lancaster. Said there’d been an accident. Said the police had contacted her because Marianne’s identification still had her old address.”
He swallowed.
“She said the car was destroyed.”
Audrey reached for him.
He barely seemed to notice.
“She arranged everything.”
His voice became distant.
“I signed the papers she brought me.”
He looked at Audrey.
“I buried her.”
Audrey nodded.
Graham’s face crumpled.
“I buried my wife.”
He covered his mouth.
Then, with a sound Audrey had never heard from him, he sank into a chair.
She knelt beside him.
He stared at the photograph.
The woman who had once slept beside him was standing in the sunlight with a different husband and children.
Graham touched the picture with one finger.
“She looks happy.”
Audrey started crying harder.
Her father didn’t.
He simply looked at the photograph and whispered, “She looks happy.”
They didn’t sleep that night.
Graham called Caroline.
She answered on the third ring.
“Hello?”
His voice was quiet.
“How could you?”
Silence.
Then Caroline began crying.
“Graham.”
“Eleven years.”
“Graham, please.”
“You stood beside me at that funeral.”
“I know.”
“You held my daughter while she cried.”
Caroline sobbed.
“I know.”
“You watched me bury an empty coffin.”
Audrey sat across from her father.
His hands were trembling.
Caroline tried to explain.
She said Marianne had been desperate.
She said the marriage had become unbearable.
She said Marianne feared Graham would fight for custody if she left openly.
Graham listened.
Then he asked, “Was I cruel to her?”
Caroline went quiet.
“Did I ever hit her?”
“No.”
“Threaten her?”
“No.”
“Lock her in the house?”
“No.”
“Then what did I do?”
Caroline began crying again.
Graham’s voice rose.
“What did I do that made you think my daughter deserved to grow up believing her mother was dead?”
There was no answer.
He looked at Audrey.
Then he said, “You knew where she was.”
Caroline whispered, “Sometimes.”
“Did she ever ask about Audrey?”
Silence.
Graham closed his eyes.
“Answer me.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Birthdays. Christmas.”
He laughed once.