My Husband Made His Doctor Promise to Give Me an Envelope Only After He Was Gone

I could have argued with her.

Mark had known that; it was the whole reason for the letter.

I could have defended his choice, and defended myself, and met her grief-anger with the exhaustion and hurt of my own grief, and we could have had, in that hospital corridor, the terrible fight that Mark had foreseen and tried to prevent.

Instead I handed her the letter, because that was what he had asked of me — protect my choice, not my reputation — and because I understood, holding it out to her, that the letter would do what no argument of mine ever could.

She took it.

And she opened it.