"I don't know what to say, Val," he admitted quietly. "I cannot lie to you."
She cried harder at his honesty. Maybe some part of her had wanted a lie. A beautiful one. A soft one. Nothing will happen to me. I will always come home. We will be fine. She wanted him to say it with enough confidence that she could pretend to believe him.
"I would have been dead long before this," he said, "so my life isn't mine. It's owed to another."
Val's fingers tightened in his shirt.
"But you…" He pulled back just enough to look at her face, wiping at her tears with his thumb. "You give me the happiness that had been missing in it."
Her lips trembled.
"And I am sorry," he continued, "that I cannot assure you of a long life. I swore to protect Luca with my life, and I intend to keep that promise until my last breath."
Val slowly lifted her head, eyes wet and wounded. "I don't factor into this?" she asked.
