Page 69 of After Everything
It was hard to believe, but there we were, face to face, and this…
This was happening.
CHAPTER 22: EMMA
"Hi," David said.
"Hi."
I sat down across from him. The chair scraped against the floor, too loud in the quiet between us.
"Thanks for coming," David said. "I wasn't sure you would."
"I wasn't either."
He nodded, like that made sense. Like he'd expected that answer.
"Can I get you coffee? Or…" He gestured vaguely toward the counter. "They have good pastries here. The blueberry scones are…" He stopped himself. "Sorry. You probably don't want me to narrate the menu."
"I'm okay." I had my hands in my lap, fingers laced together. Holding on. "I had coffee at home."
"Right. Of course."
Silence.
David picked up his cup, set it down without drinking. I watched him, waiting. He'd asked for this meeting. He could start.
"I don't know how to start," he said finally.
"Neither do I."
"I've been thinking about what to say for three days. I had this whole thing planned out." He gave a small, self-deprecating smile. "But now I'm sitting here and I can't remember any of it."
I didn't smile back. Didn't give him anything. Just waited.
He took a breath. Let it out slowly.
"Okay," he said. "I'm just going to say it."
I waited.
"I'm sorry." He looked directly at me. "I'm sorry for cheating on you. For lying to you every single day for five months. For usingyour work schedule to plan the affair. For coming home and kissing you after being with her." His voice was steady but strained. "I'm sorry for destroying your trust. For making you question your judgment, your worth, everything about yourself. For taking eight years of your life and throwing them away because I was selfish and weak and too much of a coward to admit I was unhappy."
I kept my face neutral. Didn't move. Didn't react.
"You gave up med school for me," he continued. "You moved across the country. You worked part-time so I could focus on my career. You supported me through everything: bar exam stress, shitty bosses, the partnership track. And I repaid you by fucking someone else."
The bluntness of it hit me harder than I expected. I'd heard apologies before: in the lawyer's office, through divorce mediators, in the stiff formal language of legal proceedings. But this was different. This was raw. Unvarnished.
"I can't undo any of it," David said. "Ican't give you back those years. I can't take away what I did to you. And I'm not asking you to forgive me. I… I don't think I'd forgive me either." He paused. "I just needed you to know that I understand what I did. What it cost you. What it destroyed."
His hands were flat on the table now, steady. Like he'd let go of something by saying it out loud.
"I've been in therapy for three years," he said. "Working on why I made those choices. Why I prioritized ambition over everything else. Why I couldn't just end the marriage honestly instead of blowing it up in the worst way possible." He looked down at his coffee. "I don't have a good answer. There isn't one. I was selfish. I wanted the comfort of a marriage and the excitement of something new, and I didn't care who I hurt to get it."
I still hadn't said anything. Couldn't, maybe. My throat was too tight.
"Sarah ended it the same week you kicked me out," David continued. His voice was flat now, matter-of-fact. "Her firm pulled out of the Henderson case. My firmdemoted me. I lost the partnership. Lost pretty much everything I'd sacrificed our marriage for." He looked up at me. "And I deserved all of it."
