“There are things you don’t know, Lila,” he said, his voice low and almost apologetic. “Things none of you knows.”

“Then tell me,” I urged. “I deserve to know.”

He hesitated, and for a moment, I thought he might refuse. But then he nodded, as if making a decision. “It’s complicated. My family… they have enemies, people who would hurt me to get to them. After the accident, my father thought it was best to let the world believe I was paralyzed. It was supposed to be temporary, just until things settled down, but…”

“But it wasn’t temporary,” I finished for him.

“No. I never intended to drag someone else into this mess, least of all through marriage.” He paused, looking at me with a mixture of regret and sincerity. “I’m sorry, Lila. I never wanted this for you.”

I sat back, processing his words. It was a lot to take in, a web of secrets and falsehoods spun from necessity and fear. I felt a surge of anger at the situation, at the manipulation of lives, including my own. But beneath it all, I also felt a flicker of something like understanding, even sympathy.

“What now?” I asked, unsure of where this left us.

“I don’t know,” he replied honestly. “I never planned this far ahead.”

We sat there in silence, the enormity of our situation pressing down on us. I realized that whatever came next, it would be a decision we had to make together. In that moment, the roles we’d played were stripped away, leaving just two people trying to navigate a path forward in a world full of shadows and secrets.