She cocks her head to the side with tears still in her breathtaking eyes. I can tell she doesn’t believe me. She thinks in some way it could have all been prevented. Maybe it could have. But our course was predestined by things outside of our control. The only thing we can both do now is hold on tighter than we ever have before, and this time, never let anything tear us apart.

“Love doesn’t mean you won’t sometimes break the one who stole your heart, Darling. But true love means you’ll stick around to pick up the pieces. You’ll apologize, when you’ve hurt the one you love and be grown up enough to admit when you’ve wronged them.”

She goes to speak but I silence her by placing my finger to her lips.

“I broke the day you pushed me away, but I should have seen the way you were breaking in return. I wasn’t old enough then to understand, but I am now.”

Her eyes grow curious.

“I waited in Kingston Gardens, for days, months, years, Wendy. I only let Tinker Bell warm my bed in order to steal the Pixie dust I needed to get back to you. Every time I’d make the trip, I’d save a little, just in case I needed to return to Neverland. And I always did.”

Her grip on my arms tightens as more tears fall from her eyes.

“I told you I’d never leave you. And for a long time, I didn’t. I couldn’t.”

My voice breaks on my last words and I cast my gaze downward while I attempt to gather my emotions.

“How long,” she whispers, and I look up. “How long, Peter?”

I could never lie to her and won’t start now.

Swallowing my pride, I confess, “Eight, maybe ten years.” Her gasp grabs ahold of my heart and strangles it. “Long enough to watch two little girls grow up before my eyes. Long enough to know, there are some secrets even a mother cannot hide.”

She cries harder and I let her break. Her chest rises and falls quickly. Her sobs steal her breath away. She tries to cover her face, but I force her to look at me. To look at a man who had to realize the truth from afar, who watched his children being raised without him.

“I wouldn’t let myself take you back with me for the sake of our daughter’s,” I continue, my voice is thick and shaking with emotion. “After what happened to Michael, after the way I continued to watch John turn more towards an impending darkness, I wouldn’t do that to them. Bring them here. They were safer with you, Darling.”

She sucks in a deep breath and accepts the truth she thought I didn’t know. The one that fueled the darkness inside me even more over all these years.