Armed with bitterness and what I feel is righteous anger, I drive to Darien the day after my confrontation with Corinna, to the office where Jack practices general medicine with four other doctors. I time my arrival to coincide with the end of his business hours. All day, I’ve been hearing Corinna’s voice in my head as she brutally sliced through me with her words.

Words which were worse than any wound I’ve suffered because there’s a good chance Corinna never saw a single fucking letter I sent her from overseas, begging her to talk to me. Words that become more and more despondent before I finally stopped sending them. Giving up. On her. On us. Words that might have healed our breach so much sooner if someone hadn’t intervened.

Now I want to know why. Today it all comes out. I’ll find out why, even if it means having to pour him onto a stretcher afterward.

Sliding my Jeep into an open spot near the medical complex, I jump out and stride through the office building door a few minutes before five. Jack’s office is on the third floor. Pressing the Up button, I’m pleased when the car door opens immediately.

I’ll know everything before I leave, like I should have known everything years ago.

The door to the elevator opens. I almost smack into a familiar blonde in a nurse’s uniform. Not giving her more than a cursory glance, I stride down the hallway. Her voice carries behind me when she says, “Oh my.” I feel more than see her follow me down the hall.

Great. Another piece of my past I didn’t want to run into. Literally.

Throwing open the outer office door, I walk up to the receptionist. “I need to see Dr. O’Brien as soon as he’s finished with his last patient.” My voice is polite but resolute.

The receptionist takes in my determined look but still apologizes. “I’m sorry. Dr. O’Brien doesn’t have any openings today. Perhaps I can fit you in another day this week? Are you a new patient?”

The voice attached to the blonde I spied as I was getting off the elevator speaks from behind me. “It’s okay, Tara. Jack will want to see Mr. Hunt.” I half turn toward Addison when she continues. “This is personal, not a medical call.” Addison’s eyes meet mine. “Colby, if you’ll come with me, I’ll get you settled; then I’ll let Jack know you’re here.”

Addison waits for the receptionist to buzz us through before gesturing down a hallway. I follow her silently past a few exam rooms that still have charts outside the walls. “You’re looking at a thirty-minute wait, Colby. Jack is finishing up with one patient and has two more to see.”

“That’s fine.”

“You can wait here. He’ll be with you in a few.” Addison shows me into what must be Jack’s office.

At first glance, I want to laugh out loud. Jack’s office looks worse than his room at our old house used to. Case files are piled everywhere. Yet, I know if someone were to move a file, he’d know it immediately. That’s just Jack.

How is it I know him so well after all these years, but he doesn’t know me worth a damn? Did he think I would never figure it out? Not likely. I didn’t for over ten years. The thought makes the ache in my chest tighten more. I lose myself gazing out his window at the parking lot below me.

I’m so lost in remembering my discussion with Corinna, I barely hear the door open behind me. Without moving a muscle, I ask the first question. “What did you do with the letters I sent you to give to her, you bastard?” Might as well let him know this isn’t a social call.

“I must have sent you, what, thirty or more letters? What did you do with them, Jack? I begged for someone to tell me what happened between Corinna and I since she wouldn’t speak to me. Anytime I could write, anytime it was safe enough to get a letter out, I sent them to you knowing you would have my back. I knew you’d get them to her for me. Since I’ve come back, I’ve been trying to pin her down to tell me what happened between us, to tell me what went so wrong. And today I finally figured out you never gave them to her. She hates me too much for that.”

I finally face Jack, and for the first time since we graduated UConn, I really see him. His white doctor’s coat matches the color of his cheeks since all the color has leeched out of them. “How was I supposed to defend myself when the person who should have had my back stabbed me in it?” I say harshly.

He says nothing to defend himself. But his eyes—his eyes are full of hate.

“I’m waiting,” I goad him into a response.

Jack mutters, “Bastard,” before he moves around the back of his desk. Removing a set of keys from his pocket, he reaches down and unlocks the bottom drawer. Pulling out a box, he drops it in the middle of the desk. “You should have left well enough alone. She was devastated that night. I handled the situation.”

“You had what handled?” I can barely choke the words out.

“I was protecting you. You’re a Hunt. You deserve better than some white trash wannabe slut sinking her claws into you.”

“You had no fucking idea who she was!” I fire back. “But you knew what she meant to me!”

“Say what you need to, but you know who’s to blame. You should never have let her slip so far out of your reach that you’re here in my office, wondering what happened to these.” He flips off the lids and upends the box. Hours of soul-searching lands carelessly on his desk, as each letter I wrote to Corinna lands in a heap.

The ones I wrote from the middle of the desert. The ones I wrote in the middle of classified missions I had to hide before sending. The ones I wrote from stateside bases. All of them are there. I recognize them as they carelessly land among the mess on Jack’s desk.

It’s taking everything in me not to dive across it and pummel the shit out of him right now. “Do you know what she told me this morning?” I ask him instead. Lifting my eyes from the letters to meet his, I tell him, “She told me she’s nobody’s poor little anything. She’s filled with more pride and more class than you are on your best day. So, if you think you’re better than her, Dr. O’Brien, you’re completely wrong.”

“Fuck you.” Jack slams his fists on his desk.

“You’ll never have the kind of honor she does. She’s everything, and that just pisses you off, doesn’t it? That’s even with your prestigious degrees, she’s still better than you.”

Jack flings his arms across his desk, my letters to Corinna flying into a mess on the floor. “I’m sure as shit better than that slut.”

I shake my head in disgust. “I was trying to be her friend. Not because that was all I wanted, but that was all I knew I could have. You knew this. What made you do it, Jack?”

“You said your family would never accept her.” His voice is matter-of-fact.

“And in all the time you’ve known me, have I ever once done anything to make you think I give a damn about what my family thinks?” My voice is dripping in bitterness. “Did you think I would one day want to go back into that life and what? Take you along with me?” The twitching by his eyes gives him away. I reach over and grab him by the collar. “For a smart guy, you’re a fucking moron, Jack.” I release his collar, and he falls back in the chair behind him.

I start to make my way to the office door.

“Colby!” Jack calls out right before I pass through the doorway. I pause. “Don’t you want to bring her the letters?”

“I think the man who held them from her for so many years needs to give her the explanation why he did, don’t you?” I grate out. Lord knows right now she’d never believe me if I told her the truth.

“I…I don’t know…” Jack stammers.

“I do,” I say firmly. “Otherwise, that person might be wondering what kind of other things I’ll find when I start digging.” As Jack starts sputtering, I shrug. “The other night you asked me whose life I wanted to dig into, Jack. Now, I know the answer. Make certain she gets those letters.”

Jack growls. Slowly he stands and begins gathering my letters off the floor and putting them back into the box.

I barely make it out of his waiting room before I fall back against the wall with a huge sigh. I wonder at how much of the dark I see in Corinna’s eyes I could have prevented if she’d seen those letters. Even if it meant she realized her true self-worth and left me behind and found someone she could have loved.

Even if that person wasn’t me.