“What was that?”
“That character is the one thing you have to carry for the rest of your life. Everything else—money, careers, houses—can disappear.”
She looked back toward the building where guests were still quietly leaving.
“I think tonight I protected that.”
“You did,” I said.
For a moment, we both stood quietly. Then she looked at me again.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
“Go ahead.”
“When you realized Daniel was the man I was going to marry, why didn’t you call me earlier?”
I thought about that carefully.
“Because I didn’t want to influence your decision.”
Her eyebrows lifted slightly.
“But you came tonight.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because sometimes the truth deserves to be spoken in the open.”
She nodded slowly.
“That makes sense.”
After a moment, she added,
“You know, when I joined the Marines, I thought courage meant running toward danger.”
“And now?”
“Now I think it sometimes means walking away from the wrong life.”
I smiled.
“That’s a lesson it takes some people decades to learn.”
She laughed softly.
“Well, at least I figured it out before signing a marriage certificate.”
