“At first, everything I did was for Daniel.”
I listened.
“Helping you.”
“Fixing things.”
“Taking care of Sophie when you were exhausted.”
“It felt like something I owed him.”
I nodded.
“But somewhere along the way…”
He struggled with the words.
“It stopped being only about him.”
My chest tightened.
“What did it become?”
“A life I started imagining.”
He looked ashamed.
“A bedroom for Sophie upstairs.”
“Breakfast with both of you.”
“Helping with school.”
“You coming home.”
He rubbed his hands together.
“I never planned to tell you.”
“I never intended to pressure you.”
“But I realized I had started changing my house around a future that existed only in my head.”
We sat in silence.
Then Marcus said quickly:
“I can stop.”
“Stop what?”
“Coming around so much.”
“Helping.”
“Anything that makes this uncomfortable.”
He looked at me.
“You can keep your position at work. Nothing has to change professionally.”
