When Family Became a Place I Couldn’t Return To novel Chapter 171

“But it really was just a coincidence.”

Brody started to explain, his voice a little rough as he told Nelly everything that happened that day. He said he’d gone to pick up Carrie from preschool, but something had come up and they were running late. Sheila was Carrie’s art teacher, and it happened to be Sheila’s birthday. Carrie wanted to give her a little present.

Right then, Brody got a strange phone call. The person on the other end told him Finn was never actually buried, then sent him an email. When Brody opened it, there was a video.

It was filmed a year ago. In the video, Finn’s urn was completely empty as someone placed it in the grave Brody had bought for his son.

At the time, Brody was just as shaken as Nelly would have been. But before he could process it, the caller hung up. After that, Brody immediately told people to look into the call. He didn’t have it in him to visit Finn’s grave anymore. Carrie, who was still struggling with Finn’s death, realized it was getting late and said she didn’t want to go either.

Nelly already knew what happened after that. Brody made an excuse, took Carrie and Sheila to buy a cake, and they ended up having a small birthday celebration for Sheila.

But Brody hadn’t told Nelly any of this right away. He was always so careful, and until he figured out what the mysterious call meant or whether it was even real, he just couldn’t bring himself to drag Nelly back into all that pain. Now, thinking about it, Brody knew he’d messed up. He honestly never thought about how much it would hurt Nelly. He’d gotten used to her always being understanding, always being the patient, gentle wife who let things go for his sake.

“I know I shouldn’t have left you alone that day. I just… wasn’t thinking. I didn’t expect…”

“You didn’t expect me to see you playing happy family with them.”

Brody finally finished explaining, but Nelly felt nothing. Not a single emotion stirred inside her. She cut him off, not wanting to hear any more of his explanations. Some things, especially when it comes to feelings, don’t need to be picked apart. When you’re hurting, you want answers, but sometimes the ending is answer enough. Whether Brody was telling the truth or not didn’t matter. He still chose to celebrate Sheila’s birthday.

“I know you don’t believe me, but there’s never been anything romantic between Sheila and me.” Brody kept going, now wanting to talk about why Sheila’s place looked just like theirs. He admitted he’d helped her find a place when she moved back and even recommended a design team. But he swore he had no idea they would copy his home’s look and style. If Nelly hated it, he said, he’d swap out the furniture, change the décor, even redo the whole house.

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