He nodded. “Yes.”

“After they were gone?”

“Yes, Mattie.”

I swallowed, fear rising. “So, I’m next?”

The answer I feared wasn’t in what he said—it was in what he had already shown me.

“Come with me,” he said.

I hesitated.

“If you still want to leave after… I won’t stop you, Mattie.”

That mattered more than I expected. So I went with him.

We drove in silence, the road stretching ahead while everything between us remained unspoken.

I realized I wasn’t going with Nathan for comfort—I was going because I needed to understand what I had stepped into.

We stopped at a cemetery.

Nathan got out first, walking ahead while I followed a few steps behind. The night air brushed against my skin, making me shiver.

A few steps in, I saw two graves side by side—different names carved into stone, the years marking their endings separated, yet somehow connected.

Nathan stood there for a long moment before speaking.

“This is where I learned what silence costs, Mattie.”

I stood still.

“I laid them to rest with things I never said,” he added.

For the first time, I saw that what Nathan carried wasn’t just fear—it was regret that had never found peace.

“My first wife was sick for a long time,” he said. “I kept thinking there would be more time, so I didn’t say what mattered.” He looked down briefly. “I told myself I was protecting her.”

I shook my head slowly. “She didn’t need that kind of protection… she needed honesty.”

“My second wife…” Nathan continued. “I didn’t get the chance at all.” He looked at me. “Those letters are everything I didn’t say when I still could have.”

I exhaled softly.

“That’s not love, Nathan. That’s fear. And I don’t know if I can live inside that.”

He nodded. Then quietly said, “But it’s the only way I knew how to stop wasting time.”

For a moment, I understood where it came from, even if I couldn’t accept what it was doing to us.

“Then stop writing endings for me,” I said.

Nathan looked at me.

CONTINUE READING...>>

To see the full instructions for this recipe, go to the next page or click the open button (>) and don't forget to share it with your friends on Facebook.