Her suspicions are correct; the bar is full of happy vacationers. She scans the room quickly, looking for Ralph. Breathing a sigh of relief when she doesn’t see him, she sits down at a table in the corner of the room and orders a drink from a waitress standing nearby. She lays the envelope on the table before her and stares at it. Hesitating, she gingerly picks it up and opens it, unfolding the paper inside… She takes a deep breath and begins to read.      “My dearest Melinda,           Because you have this letter in your possession, I suppose you know the full story by now. I’m sure Greg has told you everything. Yet, I feel you do deserve an explanation from me as well.           I’ll come right out and say it. There is no separation. There never was a separation. Genevieve and I are still married, still living in the same home with our son. I told you that we were separated to see your reaction. I wanted to know if you still loved me as much as I love you. And this seemed the only way to tell. I look back now and know I made the wrong decision. I played with your heart. Melinda, you don’t know how plagued by guilt I am by all of this. I caused you to run away, all because I was too weak to let you go. I needed to know, my darling. I needed to know before I told Genevieve of my decision to leave her. If I left and couldn’t have you, what would have been the point of my living at all?           I fell in love with you the moment I set eyes on you in your grandmother’s house. You were beautiful and strong, ready to face any grim news I would tell you about your grandmother’s health. And later, when we faced your grandmother’s death, and the circumstances surrounding her death, we were cemented together in a union that could never be broken, no matter how much I tried to break it. Seeing you again, seeing you with someone you obviously cared about threw me for a bigger loop than I had expected. I love you Melinda, and I wanted to know that you felt the same. I wanted to see that look in your eyes again.           I don’t know if you can ever forgive me for what I have done to your heart. But I hope and pray that you can. I still love you. I will always love you. Nothing could ever change that. Tell me where you want to go from here and I will respect it.           I love you.             Wayne”      Melinda puts the letter back down onto the table and stares straight ahead, her hands shaking. She can feel disgust rising to her throat like hot bile. She tries to swallow it down, blinking hard at the anger filling her body. He had set out to sabotage her relationship with Greg, and had almost succeeded, before even attempting to end his marriage. And to think that she had almost thrown it all away for a liar who had only pretended to be devoted to her. And he was still at it, still playing his game…