The name on the bride’s line was Carolyn Pruitt. I read it three times while Loretta stood silently beside me. Beneath the marriage license was another paper, written in Loretta’s careful handwriting: She asked me to give you this. Carolyn had come to the courthouse months earlier, thin beneath her scarf, and left a letter in case I ever came looking. I read it beside the window and felt the story I had believed for twenty-two years begin to change.

Carolyn had no insurance and no family left. Dalton had married her so she could receive treatment, never telling me because he knew I would have said yes. He simply could not bear asking me. When his company discovered two wives on his insurance plan, they removed him. That part of his story had been true. I drove to Louisville that afternoon, still wearing my work boots, and walked into the hospital. Click continue reading below