**Undergoing Reconstruction**

“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Tell you what, Richard? What would you have done?”
“I don’t know. Apologized sooner? Bought you a burger to make up for it?”
Her eyes lit up with fire, “You think what you did to me… you think a burger can make up for it?” her eyes twinkled like she was fighting tears. Did I hurt her that badly? I was just a foolish teenager.
“Nita, I am sorry. I was young, I was stupid. I wish I could take it all back and tell you how I feel instead of being a constant jerk to gain your attention.”
“How did you feel that would justify what you did to me?”
I paused for a minute, finding the words. “I had a huge crush on you at the time. And I didn’t know how to express myself. I was full of myself, I was the school’s ladies' man and the one girl I had eyes for didn’t even care if I existed,”
 “And that justified what you did to me? Richard, you broke me. I can forgive you for ‘accidentally’ spilling your ice cream on me, or throwing my due assignment in the toilet, or the gum in my hair, or the glue in my chair but tell me how can I forgive you for what you did that night? Tell me!”
“What night? Nita, what are you talking about?”
“Remember when you asked me if I knew who sexually assaulted me?”
I nodded, but what does that have to do with anything?  The more we spoke, the more confused I became.
“You did and I cannot believe that you would stand there and pretend like it didn’t happen!”


Nita has spent years trying to forget the torment she endured at the hands of Richard. When her family’s financial ruin forces her into an arranged marriage, she is horrified to find out the groom himself was her bully.
Richard, a charming and successful businessman meets the first woman to be repulsed by him. Intrigued, he proposes a deal of a one year marriage of convenience.
Navigating life as a couple, old wounds reopen, buried memories surface. As Richard learns more about his wife, he finds that he has enemies that followed him from his past to continuously cloud his wife’s judgement.
Will Nita believe the truth and bury old wounds or will the pain of the past prove too strong to heal?

When we finally sat down, the air began to loosen. The food helped. Nita's cooking could soften even the hardest hearts. We talked about work first, the safest ground. Then we drifted to nostalgia—old high school stories, faces we hadn't seen in years.


After dinner, we cleared the table together. Nita insisted she could handle the dishes. So I took Sam to my study. "Wasn't so bad now, was it?" I asked, pouring him a glass of whiskey.


"Not bad at all. You actually did it, huh? The dream."


"Back in school—you used to swear you'd marry Benny one day. Looks like you got your wish."


I laughed, the memory flooding back. God, I had been so young, so certain. "Yeah, I did, didn't I? It wasn't all easy, though. We've had our ups and downs. Still do sometimes. But right now? I think we're… okay. Stable."


He studied me, eyes sharp. "You love her?"


Chapter 66 - Not Bad At All