Chapter 14: The Last Lie

The chairman was taken away, but the answers I wanted were still waiting for me.

I returned to Zane's estate that evening with the photograph and the document clutched tightly in my hands.

For the first time in weeks, I felt as though I could finally breathe.

Then my phone rang.

Caspian.

I stared at his name for several seconds before answering.

"Lorelai." His voice sounded strangely tired.

"What do you want?"

"I need to see you."

"Why?"

There was a long silence.

"Because I owe you the truth."

I almost laughed.

"You should have told me the truth before pretending you forgot twenty years of your life."

"I know."

"You humiliated me. You let Ivy replace me. You watched me beg you to remember me when you knew exactly who I was."

His breathing became heavier.

"I was wrong."

"You were not confused, Caspian. You made a choice."

"I know."

His quiet admission hurt more than an excuse would have.

"Then what do you want from me now?"

"Nothing," he said. "I only want to explain why I did it."

I looked toward Zane, who was standing several feet away.

He did not interfere.

"Fine," I said. "One meeting."

The next morning, I met Caspian at the old townhouse where we had spent our earliest years together.

He was standing beside the window when I entered.

For the first time since the accident, he looked like the man I had once loved.

But the sight no longer made my heart race.

"I thought pretending to have amnesia would give me freedom," he said.

I remained silent.

"I wanted excitement. I wanted to feel young again. I convinced myself that because I planned to return to you eventually, I was not really betraying you."

He looked down.

"I was wrong."

"Yes, you were."

"Ivy was never the future I wanted. She was an escape from a life I had become too comfortable with."

I shook my head.

"Do not call our marriage a comfortable life. You had twenty years of my love."

His eyes reddened.

"I know."

"And you threw it away."

He did not argue.

For once, Caspian had no excuse.

Then he placed a small box on the table.

I opened it.

Inside was the silver key he had thrown away at the hospital.

My breath caught.

"I retrieved it," he said. "I kept it because I could not bring myself to destroy it."

I stared at the key.

Once, it had represented everything I believed about us.

Now it was simply a piece of metal.

"Keep it," I said.

"Lorelai..."

"It belongs to the past."

I turned toward the door.

"Wait."

I stopped.

"Do you love Zane?" Caspian asked quietly.

I did not answer immediately.

Then I looked back at him.

"I do not know what the future holds."

I placed my hand on the doorknob.

"But I know I will never go back to you."

Outside, Zane was waiting beside his car.

He looked at me but asked no questions.

I walked toward him.

For the first time, I was not running away from Caspian.

I was walking toward my own future.

Behind me, the door of the old townhouse slowly closed.

And with it, I finally closed the door on twenty years of memories.