“Are you expecting guests?”
“There you are,” he said. “Please, Nora. Sit down.”
“Not exactly.”
I sat, confused.
Richard took a deep breath.
Then he slowly lowered himself onto one knee.
“Honey, I know I’m much older than you, and maybe you’ll laugh in my face, but I’ll be honest. I’ve fallen in love with you. I don’t want to waste time pretending otherwise, so I want to ask you to marry me.”
I stared at him.
Of all the possibilities that had crossed my mind, this wasn’t one of them.
“I—I need to think about it.”
“Of course.” His smile faltered. “Take all the time you need.”
Richard was seventy-two.
I was thirty-five.
But as I thought about Emily and our situation, the decision became difficult to ignore.
Tom was gone.
I had no family to fall back on.
And Richard could offer Emily the one thing I had spent my entire life trying to find.
Stability.
A secure home. Good schools. Food on the table. A childhood without eviction notices or uncertainty.
Was it wrong to accept that?
“Yes.”
Richard’s face brightened.
He slipped the ring onto my finger and hugged me gently.
For the next five years, I expected some hidden price for the decision I had made.
None came.
Richard never pressured me to share his bedroom, and he never asked Emily to call him her father.
He gave us space, respect, and security.
He spoiled Emily, but not simply with expensive gifts.
