The results were delayed, uncertain, he said. Time stretched. “I didn’t want to scare you unnecessarily. Not sooner than necessary,” he admitted. Fear had guided him, not betrayal. She recognized the impulse, even as it angered her.
He planned for worst-case outcomes methodically. “I reckoned if it went badly,” he said, “you’d be okay.” He described his plan calmly. She heard love beneath logistics. Even so, the planning had excluded her. Preparing alone, he had turned care into secrecy and responsibility into isolation.