Page 58 of The Yoga Teacher

Guilt, he could deal with. He had done a terrible thing—he had done many terrible things.

But shame?

Shame meant he wasn’t just a man who made a mistake.

Shame meant he was broken.

His throat felt tight. His voice cracked when he spoke. “I don’t think I’m a good person.”

Dr. Ellis nodded, like she had been waiting for him to say it. “Why not?”

His jaw clenched. “Because I did the worst thing imaginable to someone who loved me. And I didn’t even let myself understand what that meant until it was too late.”

There it was.

The truth, rotting inside him for months.

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The restaurant didn’t even have a name on the door. Just a sleek black awning and a carefully curated line of people pretending they weren’t waiting for a table they’d never get.

The kind of restaurant that wasn’t about the food, but about beingseen.

His father was already there, seated at a table in the corner, perfectly angled to take in the crowd.

Today he was wearing a fitted black T-shirt and a leather jacket. Slim-cut jeans, the type worn by twenty-something influencers.

His father was the kind of man whomanagedaging, controlled it, outpaced it with money and strategy.

Daniel was seeing it with fresh eyes. The obsessive workouts, the expensive skincare, the “casual” Botox appointments he refused to acknowledge out loud.

Everything about him was designed to tell the world:I am still young. I am still powerful. I am still the man you should envy.

Except Daniel didn’t envy him at all.

Not anymore.

His father assessed Daniel as he approached, giving him a cursory nod before taking a sip of whatever overpriced cocktail he’d ordered.

"Nice of you to clean yourself up," he said. "For a while there, you were starting to look like one of thosedivorced guys."

Daniel pulled out his chair, ignoring the comment. "We haven’t even ordered and you’re already pissing me off."

His father smiled easily. "I’m just saying—it’s good you’re pulling yourself together. You let yourself go after a marriage ends, and suddenly, you’re forty-five, bald, and wearing orthopedic shoes." He shook his head like it was a tragedy. "That’s how youlose optionsin life, Daniel."

Daniel exhaled sharply, forcing himself to stay calm. His father couldsayhe was fine. He could throw money at time, could surround himself with twenty-something models and pay for whatever procedure would keep him lookingrelevant.

But Daniel understood it now.

The desperation underneath it all.

The terror.

His father was a man running from something he couldn’t outrun. And the only way he knew how to fight it was to treat people like stepping stones. Even his wives. Especially his wives.

Because if he could replacethem, keep them in a certain age bracket, then maybe—maybe—he wouldn’t have to face the truth.

That eventually, time would catch him too.

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