“Do you sell coffee strong enough to save a dying man?” he asked.
I laughed before I could hold back.
Samuel returned the next day.
And then he came back the following week.
He never pushed me. When I was silent, I respected my silence. When I spoke, I listened.
One night, in the light of a streetlight, he told me he loved me.
Makeup at night
Several weeks later, I finally revealed a part of my past.
“I was married once,” I said. My husband left me the morning after our wedding because he told everyone that I was not a virgin.
I waited for Samuel to look at me disgustedly.
Instead, his eyes were filled with pain.
“Clara,” he whispered, “whatever happened to you was never a shame that belonged to you.
No one had ever told me those words.
A year later, Samuel asked me to marry him.
I said yes.
But the night before our wedding, he found an old letter hidden under my clothes.
It had been written by Adrian’s mother after he left me.
“Please don’t read it,” I whispered.
Wedding photography
