I took another step towards the courtyard.
David was standing under a string of yellow lights, with his back to me.
Facing him stood a woman in her forties.
She had grey-blue eyes.
"You have to tell him tonight," the woman said.
" I know. "
"You should have told her as soon as you recognized her."
My hand tightened on the stone threshold.
Did she recognize me?
David lowered his voice.
"I didn't expect to fall in love with her."
The woman crossed her arms.
"That doesn't lessen the lie, though."
I held my breath.
David looked in the direction of the restaurant.
"She's leaving tomorrow."
" Exactly. "
"If I tell her now, she'll think every moment we spent together was planned."
"Wasn't it?"
He did not reply.
That silence told me more than any confession.
I went out into the courtyard.
"Planned?"
David turned around.
He turned pale.
"Eleanor."
The woman closed her eyes.
For an interminable second, nobody moved.
Then I looked at David.
"Who is she?"
"My daughter. Clara."
Clara gave me a small, sad smile.
"I'm sorry we met like this."
I barely heard her.
My chest felt tight.
"How did you recognize me?"
David took a step closer.
I stepped back.
" No. "
He stopped immediately.
The hubbub of the restaurant filtered in through the open kitchen door behind us. Glasses clinking, laughter, and a waiter asking for another bottle of wine.
Five minutes earlier, I had been sitting at a table overlooking the harbor, convinced I had found something life had, I thought, taken from me forever. Now, I was standing in a courtyard with a man who had just admitted that our meeting was no accident.
"Tell me the truth," I said.
David glanced at Clara.
She shook her head.
"I won't help you anymore, Dad. It's up to you to tell him."
He looked older than he had that morning.
Not 70 years old, but really old.
"My wife knew your husband."
I stared at him.
" What ? "
"Ruth knew Michael."
Hearing my husband's name in David's voice hit me hard in the stomach.
Michael had been dead for four years.
We had been married for 39 years.
He had never mentioned a girl named Ruth.
" How ? "
David a regardé vers une table vide dans un coin de la cour.
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