He was silent for a long time.

Then he answered.

"Mom, I think I know what she wants to talk about."

My stomach tightened.

"What do you mean?"

"Three weeks ago, Jenna told me she had something important to discuss with me. She said she was afraid I would never forgive her if she told me the truth."

I sat down on the bed.

"What truth?"

"She wouldn't say. Then she changed her mind and told me it was nothing."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I thought it was something personal. I didn't want to invade her privacy."

Daniel paused.

"But now I keep remembering the way she looked when she said it."

Neither of us spoke for several seconds.

Finally, he said, "I'll meet her. But I'm not going alone."

We arranged to meet that afternoon in a quiet café, away from our home and away from the family members who might otherwise become involved.

When Jenna arrived, she looked exhausted.

She sat across from Daniel and me, folded her hands on the table, and began to cry.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

Daniel didn't reach for her hand.

"Then tell me the truth."

Jenna looked at him, then at me.

She admitted that her relationship with Mark had become inappropriate and that she had concealed their private meetings. She did not try to defend what she had done.

But when Daniel asked why she had continued the relationship after marrying him, she looked down and said something that none of us expected.

"I was going to end it before the wedding."

Daniel stared at her.

"Before our wedding?"

She nodded.

"Your father and I had been talking for a while. I knew it was wrong. I kept telling myself I would stop, but I didn't."

The café seemed to grow quieter around us.

Daniel's face was pale, but his voice remained steady.

"Then why did you marry me?"

Jenna wiped her cheeks.

"Because I loved you. Or at least, I believed I could build a life with you. I thought I could bury what had happened and become the person you believed I was."

Daniel shook his head.

"You don't get to decide what I can live with by hiding the truth from me."

She lowered her eyes.

He was right.

Love could not replace honesty, and regret could not undo a betrayal.

I asked Jenna what she had meant when she said she had something important to tell Daniel before the wedding.

She took a shaky breath.

"I was going to tell him that I had been seeing Mark. I wanted to confess before we got married, but I was afraid of losing Daniel. Then I kept postponing it."

"Did Mark know you were planning to tell him?" I asked.

"Yes."

Mark, sitting beside me, looked down at the table.

For the first time, I understood that both of them had known the truth could destroy the lives we had built. They had simply hoped to delay the consequences.

Daniel removed his wedding ring and placed it on the table.

Jenna stared at it.