“So, Ethan doesn’t get anything?
Receive your salary for running the company. Nothing more.
“Then why give him control?”
Mr. Harris hesitated.
Michael believed that once he died, you would sell the company.
Did you think I was unable to learn?
I thought you would be overwhelmed. Three children, work and a company that you didn’t know about. I thought selling it would seem like the safest option.
And instead of asking me?s
He made sure you couldn’t do it.
That hurt because it sounded exactly like Michael.
Then Mr. Harris revealed something else.
The condition of the marriage was not in the original plan. Michael added it a few weeks before he died.
Why?
I don’t know. He made the change the day after Ethan visited him.
Suddenly, I remembered when I was twenty-two.
Before Michael, Ethan had been.
We had been secret for four months before Ethan suddenly ended our relationship.
Michael comforted me. Eventually, I married him and loved him deeply.
But now he needed to know why Ethan had really walked away.
When I confronted him, he finally told me the truth.
I never wanted to leave you.
What?
Michael told me that you had chosen him.
I felt my stomachs stirring.
“He said you were ashamed to tell me personally. He told me that I didn’t want anything serious.
“He confessed before he died,” Ethan continued. He told me he’d lied to both of us.
Why?
Because I loved you.
Michael had seen an opportunity and had taken it. He told Ethan that I had chosen him. He told me that Ethan didn’t love me.
Neither of us knew the truth.
“You disappeared first!” I shouted.
I thought you chose my best friend!
Fifteen years of memories suddenly changed.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you were happy. I wasn’t going to destroy your marriage just because my feelings were hurt.
“Then Michael decided he could fix it.
“He thought he owed us the choice he had stolen from us.
Taking another decision for us?
“Yes.
I stared at it.
“You knew all this before you married me.s
“Yes.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“At first, I was afraid you’d lose Michael again. Afterwards, I was afraid you’d think all I was doing was because I wanted to get you back.
