Confessions from the Quilting Circle - Maisey Yates Page 0,127

are a few days a week.”

“Did you hear about what happened in church yesterday?”

“No,” Anna said, frowning.

What happened now? Had Thomas burned her in effigy? Was there a scarlet A set up somewhere that she should know about?

“He apologized. For what he said about you. He said that it was wrong. He said that it wasn’t fair. That it was only one side of the story, and it was an easy side. He said that he hadn’t been a good husband to you, and that being faithful was only part of the equation when it came to marriage. He absolved you.”

Those last three words settled strangely in Anna’s brain, and everything kind of went fuzzy. “He...absolved me?”

“Yes. In front of everybody.”

“Oh.”

“He said that everyone was supposed to quit being awful to you. That—that Jacob dying had broken something that was already fractured. That he sees it a lot when he does counseling in church and...well, that it wasn’t surprising your marriage didn’t withstand it because it was stressed.”

“Wow,” she said.

And, oddly enough, that almost made her angrier than when he had dragged her name through the mud. Because mostly she just wanted it all to go away now.

And he was still putting the power in his own hands. Except...what other choice did he have? If he believed that he’d made a mistake, and she had been certain that when they’d spoken there had been a change in him. An agreement, and the sense that his own part in the failure of their marriage was real...

She had to assume, she supposed, that he was doing the best he could. That he felt genuine remorse over the way that he’d handled it.

She’d made a mistake. However their relationship had been in the end, her husband had seen her coming out of a bedroom with another man, directly after she’d had sex with him. She had hurt him. Even if it wasn’t in the way part of her petty heart might have hoped.

And then he’d hurt her with the way that he’d spoken about what had happened to the church congregation.

But all they could do now was their best to fix it. All they could do now was their best to move forward.

And this was his effort at...at healing. She had to believe it.

Because that was part of letting it go.

“Right. Well... I don’t even know what to say. I didn’t expect that.”

“Neither did anyone else. Least of all me. I still think we’re leaving the church.”

“You don’t have to. Not on my account. If it serves your spiritual needs, that’s why you should be there.”

“I’m not comfortable,” Laura said. “I can’t...go there again.”

The solidarity felt real, and it felt good.

“Thank you.”

“I’ll let you get on with your day. But let’s have coffee again?”

“Yes,” Anna said. “Let’s.”

With numb fingers, she found herself dialing Thomas’s phone number while she started her car. He picked up on the second ring.

“Why did you do that?”

“I had to try to fix what I did to you.”

It was sincere, the note of pain in his voice, and it made it hard for her to yell at him, even though she wanted to. What was the point, anyway?

“Thank you,” she said, instead of everything else she thought.

She felt her heart break open. There was a lot to be said, but not between them. Not anymore. Again, he thought he’d done the right thing, and maybe he had. She didn’t know.

But it wasn’t their problem to solve, not now.

That made her feel free. Much more than sad.

“I want you to know,” he said. “I think I loved you the very most that I can love someone like this. But I also realize that isn’t going to be enough.”

“I loved you, too,” she said. “So much. But I wanted to love you into a different person. And neither of us can do that for each other, or to each other.”

“Be happy, Anna.”

It took her a moment. But she finally figured out a way to mean the next words she spoke. “You, too.”

She got off the phone, her palms slick. And she realized that neither of them had offered each other forgiveness. And she was glad of that, because she didn’t want his.

She didn’t need his.

No, she needed her own. That was why the idea of him absolving her sat wrong.

They weren’t together. She didn’t require absolution from him. It needed to come inside herself. A spiritual reconciliation. With God, with her own heart. With those that she wanted to continue to