For a long moment, he said nothing. Then he looked at me, and his voice came out barely above a whisper.
“There’s a reason I needed two identical bracelets. And you’re going to hate me when you hear it, Liv.”
My heart started racing.
“Her name is Marta,” Nolan finally said.
The name dropped into my chest like a stone into still water.
“Marta? Who is Marta?”
He stared at the bracelet between us for a long time before answering.
“Ten years ago, the night after what would have been Emily’s 16th birthday, I walked to the bridge.”
“You remember I said I was going for a walk that night? I didn’t tell you where. I just wanted to cry where she died, Liv,” he whispered. “I couldn’t cry in our house. You were barely eating. I thought if I broke in front of you, you would break too.”
I could not find my voice.
“I wasn’t looking. I stepped into the road,” Nolan continued. “A car came around the bend, and a woman pulled me back by my coat. It was… Marta. She was walking home from a shift.”
“And you never told me.”
“She sat with me for four hours that night,” he added. “On a bench. She called me every morning for a week until I could get out of bed. She was a nurse. She knew what to look for.”
I pressed both palms to my eyes.
“Ten years, Nolan. Ten years.”
“It was never romantic. I swear to you, Olivia. Never.”
