It was the first time I had seen his tears in two years, and I could not tell whether the unfamiliar sight made the moment more honest or more unbearable.

“Are there more things you haven’t told me?” I asked.

He nodded.

Then he said something that made every other secret seem almost small.

“There was another driver,” he whispered.

“And I knew him.”

PART 12

I remembered the accident only in fragments: rain streaking across the windshield, a turn taken too quickly, an impact from the side, and Colton calling my name.