When Elise’s breathing started to steady, Jake spoke, voice low.
“You know,” he said, “I once kept my mouth shut when I should’ve spoken.”
Elise looked at him through wet lashes.
Jake stared past her, at nothing, seeing something old.
“My wife needed a doctor,” he said. “And the man in town turned us away because we couldn’t pay enough.”
His throat tightened, but he kept going.
“I walked out of that office without saying a word,” he said. “She died two days later.”
The words dropped into the cabin like stones.
Jake’s hands clenched, then loosened.
“I’ve had to live with that silence every day since,” he said.
