He stood with his back to her, tall and lean as ever, though perhaps a bit thinner now.
Briony Kensington watched him in silence.
Minutes slipped by without a word.
At last, Briony sighed a sound of release, almost relief.
"Stewart Wentworth, I've made my peace with everything. You shouldn't keep dwelling on the past, either."
Stewart paused, then turned to face her.
He crossed the room and knelt down in front of her, his long, narrow eyes fixed on hers, the corners rimmed with red.
She could tell he'd been crying.
"You've grown more sentimental than before," she said, her tone gentle, teasing, a hint of warmth in her voice.
Stewart's dark eyes reflected her own pale, drawn face.
"Bryn, I know there's no going back for us. After everything that's happened, I realize now how unforgivable so much of my behavior was. I put you through hell, and still, you chose to raise our two children on your own. For that alone, I could never repay you, not in a lifetime."
His voice was low and sincere.
the risks of surgery. Honestly, if it hadn't been for them, I don't think I would've made it through. Stewart, neither of us came from happy homes. Let's learn from that. From now
"How so?"
"You're... more human, somehow."
her for a
then, the medication I was on made me numb.
Briony nodded. "That's good."
like old friends, calm and
children who had
could survive hardship together, support one another, and strive to become
but they had a shared purpose now. The old
they would be friends or perhaps something like family, bound together by their
...
days later, Briony's condition
went to
suffered a complication with her pregnancy—a scare that nearly ended in
week of careful treatment, the
drove Briony to the
then stepped out to wait
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