Page 30 of Letters to Molly (Maysen Jar 2)

“You were supporting your brother.”

She nodded. “I mean it. I like Brenna. She’s just not right for Finn.”

Because she isn’t me.

I pitied the women Finn introduced to Poppy. They had a brick wall to crash through if they wanted in her good graces. Because no matter what, they’d be compared to the ex-sister-in-law who was also the best-friend-sister. Even Brenna, someone who’d gone over to Poppy and Cole’s many times in the year she’d dated Finn, hadn’t come close to cracking that wall.

“Finn already beat you to it. The picture’s in the office trash can.”

“Uh-oh.” She sighed. “Is he okay?”

“I think so. He told me they didn’t have anything in common.”

“She seemed nervous around the kids. And she hated hiking.”

I winced. “That would do it.”

Of course Finn wouldn’t stay with a woman who wasn’t good with Kali and Max. But on top of that, Finn loved hiking. Before the kids were born, our Sundays were spent exploring new mountain trails. After we had Kali, the hikes were shorter and smoother, but we still went with a baby strapped onto his back.

“I’m glad he started hiking again,” I told Poppy.

“Me too.” She gave me a sad smile.

Finn had stopped hiking after Jamie had been killed. Instead, he’d spent his free time at Poppy’s house, coaxing her out of bed or into the shower. Even after she’d worked her way out of her depression, he hadn’t hiked much. He’d worked.

It wasn’t until we’d been divorced for a year that he got into it again. On the mornings when he didn’t have the kids, he went hiking for an hour. The man would climb to the top of a ridge, then jog down. In the winter, he went snowshoeing instead because he loved to get outdoors.

“Do you think Finn’s happy?” Poppy asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. “I hope so.”

“I want you both to be happy. I don’t—” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

“What?”

Her blue eyes glistened with tears as she looked at me. “Sometimes I feel like if I had handled Jamie’s death better, if I hadn’t been such a wreck, you and Finn wouldn’t have gotten divorced.”

“Poppy,” I whispered. “No.”

She blinked a few times, clearing the tears. “May always makes me think.”

May. There were too many anniversaries in May.

It was the month she and Jamie had married. It was the month he’d been murdered, right before their one-year wedding anniversary. She’d spent five Mays wondering why he’d been taken. Wondering why his cold-blooded killer had gone free.

It wasn’t until Cole came along and solved Jamie’s murder that she was able to put those questions to rest.

Poppy hadn’t been depressed, she’d been destroyed. Her heart had been shattered, and she’d become a shell of a person, walking around like a corpse.

For months, Finn had gone to her house first thing in the morning. He made sure she was okay for work. He made sure she was alive. All those mornings, I kept my phone close, because I never knew what he’d find when he got there.

She’d been on the verge of dying from a broken heart.

“Please don’t think that, Poppy. What happened with Finn and me doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“I want to believe that. I really do. But the thing is, he held me together. You both did. Completely. If it wasn’t for you two, I don’t know if I would have survived.”

“You would have been fine.” Tears welled in my eyes. “I can’t bear to think of this world without you.”