smelled fresh.
Yuki sat in a chair and stared at the garden.
She thought about the first day they had met. Kenji had told her that she did not have to explain her sadness to earn the right to feel it.
Now she realized that the same principle applied to him.
He had the right to grieve. He had the right to remember his wife and daughter. He had the right to struggle with the pain of losing them.
But he did not have the right to make his new wife live inside a mystery because he was frightened of revealing his past.
When Kenji finally sat beside her, he kept his distance.
“I am sorry,” he said.
Yuki continued looking at the garden.
“I believe that you loved them.”
“I did. I do.”
“I believe that losing them changed you.”
“It changed everything.”
She turned toward him.
“But I
