He had been too weak to stay after losing Emily.
Over time, that interpretation had hardened into fact.
I expected the box to contain some explanation.
Maybe an apology.
Maybe Carl trying to justify himself.
There was a letter.
But the letter changed everything.
Carl had written it the night before he left.
The first line said that if he waited until after leaving, he might lose the courage to write it.
Then he told me something I had never known.
Carl had been sick.
Four months before Emily died,
