I couldn't stop looking at the address.<\/p>\n
It was the same house.<\/p>\n
The same place where Daniel and I had lived before we moved.<\/p>\n
I had spent years thinking about that house as the beginning of our life together.<\/p>\n
Now I was wondering what had happened there before I arrived.<\/p>\n
Emily sat quietly across from me.<\/p>\n
The envelope lay between us.<\/p>\n
I could hear the soft sound of the air conditioner.<\/p>\n
Neither of us seemed to know what to say next.<\/p>\n
I wanted to ask her everything.<\/p>\n
But I didn't even know where to begin.<\/p>\n
"Who was the person living there?"<\/p>\n
Emily looked down at her hands.<\/p>\n
"I don't know how to explain it."<\/p>\n
I felt my anger return.<\/p>\n
"You've known me for thirty-seven years. You can't keep saying that."<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
I looked at the papers again.<\/p>\n
The bank statements were still spread across the table.<\/p>\n
I picked up the first one and examined the date.<\/p>\n
Then I looked at the next.<\/p>\n
The payments had continued for years.<\/p>\n
I couldn't understand why Daniel would have sent money to someone without telling me.<\/p>\n
I couldn't understand why Emily had kept the records.<\/p>\n
And I couldn't understand why she had waited until now to show them to me.<\/p>\n
I felt as though I had been dropped into the middle of a story that everyone else already knew.<\/p>\n
Except me.<\/p>\n
I looked at Emily.<\/p>\n
"Did Daniel ever tell you about this?"<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Did you ever ask him?"<\/p>\n
She hesitated.<\/p>\n
Then she said, "I didn't know what I was looking at until after he died."<\/p>\n
I tried to believe her.<\/p>\n
I wanted to believe her.<\/p>\n
But there was still something I couldn't accept.<\/p>\n
She had known enough to bring the documents to me.<\/p>\n
She had known enough to call our photograph the last one we would take as best friends.<\/p>\n
And she had known enough to tell me that I would discover who she really was in my life.<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"Why did you say that yesterday?"<\/p>\n
Emily closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
"Because I knew you would be angry."<\/p>\n
I waited.<\/p>\n
"And I knew you would have questions."<\/p>\n
I looked at the envelope.<\/p>\n
"I already have questions."<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
I wanted her to say more.<\/p>\n
I wanted her to tell me what she had been hiding.<\/p>\n
But she seemed unable to continue.<\/p>\n
I stood up and walked toward the window.<\/p>\n
The ocean was still there.<\/p>\n
The same water we had watched the afternoon before.<\/p>\n
The same place where Emily had asked me for that photograph.<\/p>\n
I remembered the way she had held her sunglasses.<\/p>\n
I remembered the trembling in her hand.<\/p>\n
At the time, I thought she was afraid of losing our friendship.<\/p>\n
Now I wondered whether she had been afraid of what I would discover.<\/p>\n
I turned back toward her.<\/p>\n
"Did you know Daniel before I did?"<\/p>\n
Emily looked at me.<\/p>\n
For a moment, she didn't answer.<\/p>\n
Then she said, "Yes."<\/p>\n
I felt my stomach tighten.<\/p>\n
"How?"<\/p>\n
She lowered her eyes.<\/p>\n
"We knew each other before you met him."<\/p>\n
I stood still.<\/p>\n
I had known Emily since we were children.<\/p>\n
But I had never known that she had known Daniel before me.<\/p>\n
I tried to remember every time she had mentioned him.<\/p>\n
Every time she had visited our house.<\/p>\n
Every time she had spoken to him as though they were old friends.<\/p>\n
I had never questioned any of it.<\/p>\n
I had never thought there was a reason to.<\/p>\n
"Why didn't you tell me?"<\/p>\n
She looked up.<\/p>\n
"I was afraid."<\/p>\n
"Afraid of what?"<\/p>\n
She didn't answer.<\/p>\n
I sat down again.<\/p>\n
The papers were still in front of me.<\/p>\n
I picked up the final page.<\/p>\n
The address was printed clearly.<\/p>\n
I could see the name of the street.<\/p>\n
I could see the number of the house.<\/p>\n
I could picture the front door.<\/p>\n
And I knew that whatever had happened there, I had been living with the consequences without knowing it.<\/p>\n
I looked at Emily.<\/p>\n
"I need you to tell me everything you know."<\/p>\n
She took a deep breath.<\/p>\n
Then she began.<\/p>\n
Source: kaylestore.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n I couldn't stop looking at the address. It was the same house. The same place where Daniel and I had lived before we moved. I had spent years thinking about … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10676,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10689,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10681\/revisions\/10689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 6: The Questions I Had Never Asked My Best Friend Were Suddenly the Only Ones I Could Think About<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"