“Does that mean you forgive him?”
“Not for everything. Forgiveness is not pretending the wound did not happen. It is deciding the wound will not be the only thing you remember.”
He looked across the water.
“I don’t know if I can forgive Olivia.”
“You do not have to.”
“Will I ever trust anyone again?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“Because you trusted me today.”
Michael looked at her.
Clara squeezed his hand.
“That is where it starts.”
Behind them, Elise began playing the violin again. This time the melody drifted through the open kitchen window and settled over the lake.
Michael leaned his head against Clara’s shoulder.
For a while, they watched the last light disappear.
Then he took the velvet box from his coat and opened it. His father’s cufflinks lay beside the unused wedding ring.
He picked up the cufflinks.
“Would you help me put these on?”
Clara smiled.
“Your father wore them at our wedding.”
“I know.”
“He said they made him look respectable.”
“Was he?”
“Not particularly.”
Michael laughed.
Clara fastened the cufflinks to his sleeves. The silver caught the fading light.
Then Michael removed the wedding ring from the box and walked to the lake.
Clara watched him hold it over the water.
He did not throw it.
Instead, he turned and placed it back in the box.
