“I’m stopping everything until I understand what you’ve built and why.”
The next morning, I knocked on Gloria’s door.
“I need to see the original plans.”
She spread the garden sketches across the table.
“You designed this?”
“Greg asked me to. I used to do landscaping work.”
“You knew I didn’t want a memorial?”
She hesitated.
“He told me.”
“What did you say?”
“I told him he was building what you’d already refused.”
“And Greg?”
“He said you’d understand once you saw it.”
That evening, I waited for him.
“You knew I didn’t want a memorial.”
His shoulders dropped.
“You would’ve said no.”
“Then you knew what my answer was.”
Greg gripped the back of a chair.
“I thought if you saw it finished, you’d understand.”
I looked at him.
“Do you know why I kept saying no?”
He didn’t answer.
“I wasn’t afraid of a bench. I was afraid of loving something connected to Liv and then watching that die too.”
His hand loosened.
“I wish you’d told me that.”
“I wish you’d asked instead of deciding my no meant I didn’t care.”
He sat down.
“I was scared too, Simone. Just of something different.”
“What?”
“That one day we’d stop saying her name because it hurt too much.”
I sat across from him.
“Why Ben?”
“Because he adored her too.”
“He left.”
Greg held my gaze.
“He kept living.”
