Me: “Because your grandparents… are Arthur and Martha Higgins.”
Clara frowned, her brow furrowing in confusion. “Yes? You know them?”
The room went silent as the elderly couple approached our table. The grandfatherâs eyes narrowed behind his wire-rimmed glasses. He stopped dead in his tracks, his hand gripping the back of a chair until his knuckles turned white.
“You,” the old man whispered, his voice trembling with a rage that had been simmering for a decade.
“What is going on?” Clara asked, looking frantically between us. “Liam, why are you shaking?”
I took a step back, unable to breathe. The air in the restaurant felt suddenly thin. “Clara, you told me your parents died in a car accident when you were twelve. You told me it was a drunk driver. A teenager who was reckless and stupid.”
“Yes,” she said slowly, fear creeping into her voice. “He went to juvenile detention. He served his time. But what does that have toâ”
“I changed my name when I got out,” I choked out, tears stinging my eyes. “I wanted to start over. I wanted to forget the night I destroyed a family.”
Clara froze. The color drained from her face, leaving her looking like a ghost.
“No,” she whispered.
“I didn’t know,” I pleaded, looking at her grandparents, whose faces were masks of pure horror. “I swear to God, Clara, I didn’t know it was you. I fell in love with you before I ever knew your last name used to be different. I didn’t know I was the reason you were an orphan.”
Martha, her grandmother, let out a sob and covered her mouth. Arthur stepped forward, shielding Clara from me as if I were a monster. And in their eyes, I was.
“I can’t marry you,” I repeated, my voice breaking. “I can’t build a life with you on the foundation of what I took from you.”
I didn’t wait for her to scream. I didn’t wait for her to tell me to leave. I turned and walked out of the restaurant, leaving the love of my life surrounded by the ghosts of my past, knowing that the only way to truly love her was to let her go.
