"There are a hundred hundred things I could tell you," Liliana said, staying him for a moment with her hand. "Ask me something."

She reached for his face again. "You are content to let my secrets be my secrets and I love you deeply for that." Even with all those times that those secrets had then reared up on them both. "But I know you have questions. And I would--today--if you wished..."

Call it an anniversary gift, a gift of herself in a way that she rarely, if ever, offered up. She slowly, but surely, was discovering she wanted him to know her further, but didn't know what to say or how or even what he'd want to know.

But a gift of an answer to a question? That she could do. And let him know just how deeply her trust for him went.

But again, not words she could say. So just the offer and the hope he would understand what she was offering and why and take it.