For three years in a row, I sat alone on my birthday, dressed up, waiting at a candlelit table for a husband who never came. Mark always had excuses work, traffic, something urgent. But on the third year, as I stared at the untouched seat across from me, I’d had enough. When he finally arrived, breathless and apologetic, I told him it was over. I thought I meant it.

Two weeks after the divorce was finalized, life was quieter, lonelier. That’s when Mark’s mother showed up at my door, different softer, worn. She handed me an address and urged me to go. “If you ever cared about him,” she said, “you should know.” I didn’t expect much, but I went.

The address led me to a cemetery. There, I found a grave: Lily Harper. Born: October 12th, 2010 – Died: October 12th, 2020. My birthday. The same day he always vanished. Mark appeared behind me, his voice low and tired. Lily had been his daughter from a previous marriage. She died in a car crash on her tenth birthday. Every year, he visited her grave, lost in grief he couldn’t share not even with me.

We sat together on a bench, surrounded by whispering trees. He admitted he didn’t know how to celebrate me while mourning her. “It felt like betraying both of you,” he said. I understood then. A year later, we stood together at her grave, no longer divided by silence. For my birthday, he gave me a necklace a small gold lily. And this time, we celebrated not one life, but two. Together.