Chapter 16 - I Did Not Buy It Back
I said no.
That surprised everyone.
Daniel.
Susan.
Claire.
But buying it back would consume most of my liquid savings.
I had already sacrificed enough to prove I loved the Bennett name.
Thomas never asked me to become a museum curator for our grief.
The buyer eventually sold to a local organic farmer.
No luxury cottages.
I could live with that.
I kept my forty-two acres.
The creek easement.
The orchard Thomas planted.
Then I rebooked Scotland.
A train Thomas had circled in red.
I cried in the airport.
Then laughed at myself for crying.
On Skye, the wind nearly knocked me over.
Thomas would have loved it.
I carried one letter in my coat pocket.
Help him become honest instead.
I finally understood.
Love was not making Daniel comfortable.
Love was refusing to help him stay dishonest.
Back home, Tiffany’s case moved toward a plea.
She admitted using my signature image.
Ordering the stamp.
Submitting documents with Richard.
She claimed her father pushed her.
Richard fought the charges.
His lawyers attacked everyone.
Daniel was a failed businessman.
Tiffany was emotional.
Claire was incompetent.
The bank was careless.
Every person was responsible except Richard.
A familiar pattern.
Then Daniel received divorce papers.
No fight over gifts.
No fight over photographs.
One fight over the wedding debt.
Tiffany wanted half assigned to him.
Daniel agreed to more than half.
“Because I kept saying yes.”
That answer told me he was finally learning.
Then he gave me something else.
My old Scotland brochure.
He had found it in a box after the wedding.
Inside was a note Thomas wrote years earlier:
May you like
Maggie, if I go first, don’t make grief your second husband.
I sat at the kitchen table and laughed until I cried.
