“She abandoned us.”
I stared at him.
“No… you told me—”
“I lied.”
The girls looked frightened now.
Tiny faces pale.
Daniel laughed weakly, almost to himself.
“She wanted freedom. Said motherhood was suffocating her.” His jaw tightened violently. “Three months later, she emptied the bank account and disappeared with another man.”
I couldn’t speak.
“So no,” he continued coldly, “my wife didn’t die.”
His eyes drifted toward the shrine.
“But the version of her that loved us did.”
The basement suddenly felt impossibly small.
Airless.
Then he looked directly at me again.
And softly said the sentence that made my blood freeze solid:
“That’s why I chose you.”
