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She sighs. “Wow. Has my reputation taken such a blow? I always finish what I start. You know that.”
“Yeah. And you don’t start what you’re not sure you can finish.”
“Is there something wrong with that?”
“No.”
I only go after the things I know I can have. At least, I did until I married Aster.
“It’s my day off and I thought I’d come see you,” Giselle tells me. “Isn’t that sweet?”
“You’re welcome,” I tell her.
“Excuse me?”
I glance at her. “I thought you came to thank me for my help. You’re welcome.”
She snorts. She doesn’t deny it, though.
“Where’s Aster?” she asks.
I frown. That’s the one question I wish she wouldn’t ask. But of course she would ask it.
“I thought you came to see me,” I say.
“And my sister-in-law,” Giselle says. “I’ve always thought of her as my sister and now she really is. I’d like to formally welcome her to the family.”
“I think Mom, Dad and Leander already did that while you were running away.”
Giselle frowns. “Still, I’d like to see her. Where is she?”
I pause to think of how best to answer her question.
“Mason?”
I decide to tell her the truth. “She left.”
She sits up. “What do you mean?”
“I mean she left me like you left Bill,” I say.
Giselle snorts. “Bill and I didn’t get married. You and Aster did. She’s not supposed to leave.”
My thoughts exactly.
I lift a finger. “You know, why don’t you tell her that when you talk to her?”
Giselle puts her hands on her hips. “What did you do?”
I give her a look of disbelief. “Me?”
“Well, she wouldn’t just leave.”
“So you think I did something, that it’s my fault.”
“Just answer the question,” she demands.
I sigh. “Noah has Alzheimer’s.”
Giselle gasps. “No.”
I nod to confirm the fact.
She wraps her hand around her throat. “That’s sad. But wait. Are you saying Aster went back home to take care of Noah? Is that what you meant when you said she left?”
I want to say yes. That would make this conversation easier, shorter. Instead, I tell her the truth. I tell her everything, even the fact that Aster and I only got married to make Noah happy.
“I knew something was off,” Giselle says when I’m done. “I was actually surprised when I heard you two got married, but I was just so relieved that Mom wasn’t mad at me and so happy for the two of you that I nipped my suspicions in the bud. I didn’t want to be a party pooper.”
“Well, consider the party pooped,” I tell her.
Giselle lets out a deep sigh. “So what? The two of you are getting a divorce?”
I shrug. “I guess.”
“You’re just going to let her go?”
“You heard the story. Aster didn’t really want to marry me. I have no right to keep her.”
“Okay. Let me ask you a different question.” Giselle moves closer to me. “Are you in love with Aster? And I’m only asking because the whole time you were explaining things to me, you sounded a bit like it. Also, because you’re still wearing your wedding ring.”
I glance at my hand. I guess I am.
“Also, you look kind of sad that she’s gone. You’re practically sulking.”
Am I? “Am not.”
“And also – and this is my final also – even though I thought there was something off about you and Aster getting married, the more I thought about it, the more I thought that yeah, it’s possible the two of you have been in love all this time. Well, mostly you, because I think she’s been in love with Leander.”
Yup. That’s common knowledge.
“But yeah, I didn’t think much of it before, but you were always asking about Aster, weren’t you?”
So my sister has finally realized that, has she?
“So?” Giselle rests her elbow on the back of the couch. “Do you love her?”
I frown. “What does it matter now? She’s gone.”
“But it does matter,” Giselle tells me. “If you don’t love her, then you’ll just keep sitting here and sulking. If you love her, though, you’ll go after her and get her back.”
I snort. “What makes you think Aster wants me to go after her?”
I have a feeling that if I do that, Aster will just be even angrier with me.
“Because a part of me wanted Bill to come after me,” Giselle answers. “Maybe if he had, I would have come back and married him. The fact that he didn’t made me think maybe he didn’t want me, after all.”
“Or maybe he just wanted you to be happy,” I point out.
“So he knew he couldn’t make me happy,” she says with a shrug. “What about you? Do you think you can make Aster happy?”
I thought I was doing that. I thought she was happy here.
“If you do, then you owe it to her to try and make her believe it,” Giselle tells me. “And if you love her? You owe it to yourself to try and get her back or you’ll regret it. Forever.”
