Chapter One — The Truth in His Hands
Callahan’s fingers tightened around mine.
“I was there,” he whispered.
The room went silent around us.
For a second, I thought I had misunderstood him. My mind reached for safer meanings, kinder explanations, anything that did not make my wedding night tilt into something dark and impossible.
“At the explosion?” I asked.
He nodded.
My throat closed.
“You were sixteen.”
“Yes.”
“You lived three neighborhoods away.”
“I know.”
I pulled my hands from his.
For the first time since meeting him, I stepped away.
Callahan lowered his head. “Merritt, please let me explain.”
I laughed once, but there was no humor in it. “Explain how you knew about the worst day of my life before I ever told you?”
His face twisted with pain.
“Because that day became the worst day of mine too.”
