The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 197

Chapter 177: Forgiveness

Caleb pov

The room went silent. Even the therapist stopped taking notes. Some moments were too important to write down.

Clar

Six weeks in, I was waiting on a corridor bench when Diana finished her session. She sat beside me and stared at the wall.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “For the tests, the doubt, the years of misplaced anger. I know ‘sorry’ doesn’t cover it.”

“It doesn’t have to cover everything,” I said. “It just has to be real.”

She glanced at me, her expression softening into a look that reminded me of the sister I’d had before everything broke. “It’s real,” she said.

I nodded. I thought of Tom asking about her and Grace bearing her name.

“Come home when you’re ready,” I said. “Not before. But when you are-come home.”

She was quiet for a long moment. “How’s Tom?” she asked finally.

Something in my chest loosened. “He asks about you every day,” I said. “He told Grace you were coming back soon.”

The corner of her mouth moved. “He can’t know that.”

“He decided it was true,” I said. “So as far as Tom is concerned, it’s true.”

She looked at the window. “And Grace?”

“Growing up so fast, she eats a lot, and has lots of opinions now.” I paused. “Strong ones. Bella says she gets it from me. I maintain my stand that she got it from Bella.”

Diana made a sound that was almost a laugh. “It’s both of you,” she said. “Obviously.”

We sat with that for a moment then she continued.

۴

“I’ve been thinking about what you said,” she said. “In the hotel room. That he’s not doing it to people who are alone anymore.”

“Yes.”

“I want to believe that,” she said carefully. “I’m working on believing it.”

“That’s enough,” I said. “That’s all it needs to be right now.”

She looked at me then. “I’ll come home,” she said. “When I’m ready.”

“I know,” I said.

“Don’t let Tom forget me in the meantime.”

Chapter 1-Porgiveness

Claim

“Diana,” Hooked at her. “That child has your name on a placemat he made at school. He is not going to Torget you.”

Bella POV

Diana moved in on a Saturday in November, months after the hotel incident. She arrived with just one bag, looking like someone who had worked hard to heal but was still feeling the weight of it. Before she even reached the gate, Tom ran out, shouting her name with pure joy.

“Diana! Diana, you’re HERE!” He skidded to a stop in front of her in his socks, having apparently not paused to find shoes. “I told Grace you were coming back, I told her.”

Diana crouched down to his level. “You told Grace?”

“Every day,” he said, with complete seriousness. “So she would know. She knows your voice already because Mummy puts you on speaker.” He grabbed her hand with both of his. “I saved your seat at the table. The one by the window. Nobody sat in it.”

Diana looked at him for a moment, something moving across her face that she didn’t try to manage. “Nobody sat in it?”

“I told Dad it was your seat,” Tom said simply. “So nobody sat in it.”

I saw her close her eyes for a moment, just letting herself feel that she was actually wanted.

I was holding Grace. Diana looked at her closely, still clearly moved by the fact that the baby was named after her. Grace stared back, looking very serious.

“Hello, little one,” Diana said.

When Grace grabbed her finger, Diana couldn’t hide her emotions anymore.

“Come in,” I said. “There’s food.”

That afternoon, we all sat at the kitchen table for three hours-Caleb, Diana, Tom, the baby, and me. Maya showed up eventually, as she always does, pulling up a chair and making herself at home without needing an invitation.

Tom told Diana every single thing she had missed, using drawings from his school bag to explain.

“This one,” Tom said, spreading a drawing flat on the table with great authority, “is when Grace first smiled. Mummy said it was probably wind but I know it wasn’t because she was looking at me.”

Diana studied the drawing with complete seriousness. It appeared to show a large figure, a small figure, and something that was either a sun or an explosion. “Which one are you?”

“The tall one.”

“You’ve made yourself quite tall.”

“I am quite tall,” Tom said, entirely unbothered, and produced the next drawing. “This one is from when we went to the park and Grace wore the hat with the ears. Dad said she looked like a bear. Mummy said she looked like Grace but I thought she looked like both.”

<Chapter 122 Porgivene

“A Grace-bear,” Diana said.

Tom pointed at her. “Yes. Exactly.”

Clam

Diana caught my eye over his head and I tooked away before either of us lost composure.

Caleb was quieter than usual. He just watched Diana-not because he was worried or trying to control things, but because he was still adjusting to the fact that he hadn’t lost her after all.

At one point, Maya caught my eye and looked around at the scene: Tom telling his stories, Diana laughing, Grace playing, and Caleb’s arm resting on the back of my chair. She gave me a look that said: Look at this. Look at what you’ve built.

I looked. And for the first time, I really let myself see it.

Later that evening, after the kids were in bed and Maya had left with her “stolen” leftovers, Diana and I talked alone in the garden.

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