My Husband Disappeared Without Explanation, and Years Later, I Received a Letter

So I chose to disappear.

I know what that choice would make you think of me. I know you would hate me for leaving without explanation. But I believed your anger would be easier for you to bear than the slow loss of me. Easier than watching the man you loved become weak, sick, and unreachable before the end."

I stopped reading for a second and pressed my hand over my mouth.

"No," I whispered into the empty kitchen. "No, Sam."

But the letter did not change.

In the final lines, he wrote something that broke whatever had been left of me.

"If there is a child, if somehow we were given that gift and I never got to know, then please believe this: I loved that child even before knowing about them.

Forgive me, please.

Sam."

I read that sentence three times, then five. Each time it landed differently. Not softer. Just deeper.