“I can’t do that.”
No one moved.
I turned to Linda. She was crying, but she nodded.
“You deserved the truth long ago,” I told her.
Then I walked away.
The marriage was annulled. There were legal consequences, investigations, and difficult conversations that followed.
Life didn’t return to normal overnight—but it moved forward.
I still go to church. People still whisper sometimes. But I’ve found something steady again—something quiet and real.
And strangely, that feels like enough.