“I don’t get it,” I said quietly. “If you loved her so much… why didn’t you just tell her what you did? The truth. All of it. Maybe if you had been honest from the start, she wouldn’t have left.”
My father didn’t speak at first. He leaned back again, resting his head against the tall leather chair. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t answer.
Then he said, “Would you tell Elena?”
The words landed like a stone on my chest.
“She probably already knows,” I said.
“That’s not what I asked.”
I stayed silent.
He pressed on, voice calm, almost curious. “That’s because I’m well known. My name carries weight and infamy. But what if I wasn’t? What if you could hide it? What if you could keep it from her long enough to make her fall in love, to make her stay? Would you still risk it, knowing tha
