Her voice breaks at the end, and she glances down at her hands while I let the shock of this revelation fully soak in. And then I reach for her hand, squeezing it gently. My eyes dart to his urn in the living room. My heart sinks to the floor. Because I bet she’s right. He would be devastated that I used him as an excuse to push someone so wonderful away from me.

I steady my voice. “Mom, don’t cry. Please. It’s more . . . complicated than that.”

Even behind glistening eyes, her stare doesn’t lose its punch. “Is it? You love him, and he loves you. It doesn’t get simpler than that.” For a moment she stops, lips pursed, shaking her head. “You think if you don’t let people get close—no friends, no relationships—you don’t have to face losing them someday,” she says. “That’s no way to live.”

Another truth bomb that takes a silent minute for me to process.

“You should call him,” she finally says.

“I can’t. You watched the video of our argument. You heard the things he said to me and the things I said to him. They were awful. I don’t know if we can come back from that.”

“People in love hurt each other, unfortunately. But you learn to forgive. Your dad and I learned that long ago.”

“Mom, you and Dad bickered over what takeout place to order from or where to vacation. Not this sort of thing.”

“You think we never argued about anything serious?”

“Not in front of me. You were pretty much the perfect couple.”

An amused chuckle falls from her lips. “We weren’t even close to perfect.”

“You sure made it seem that way. Everyone agreed. All my friends thought you were the cutest married couple they ever met because you always seemed so in love.”

“Oh, we were in love.” She takes a long sip of water from my glass. “But you’re wrong to think we never had any real problems.”

Tapping her fingers on the tabletop, she gazes into the kitchen. “Your dad broke up with me right before we got engaged.”

My mouth falls open. “I never knew that.”