Chapter 14 - WHAT MY SON DIDN'T SAY
I remembered that card. I had written, I'm glad Ryan found someone to make a home with. Love, Marissa.
Paige had sent back a heart emoji. Now my signature was an example for a forgery.
Ryan covered his face. “She saved it for this.”
“No,” I said. “Maybe she saved it because I cared about her. What she did later was her choice.”
He couldn't look at me. Finally he admitted something he'd been holding back.
“Before the wedding, she told me you were turning people against her. I started avoiding your calls when we were planning things.”
“I noticed.”
“I told myself you were having a hard time letting go.”
I thought of the empty chair at the tasting, the dress fitting I'd learned about from photographs, and the wedding seating chart that placed me beside a service hallway.
“When your father died,” I said, “I was terrified I'd lose you too. So I tried never to make you choose between me and the woman you loved. I didn't realize you were being asked to choose whether to believe me.”
Ryan cried then. Quietly, like the thirteen-year-old I'd once found sitting in Thomas's truck.
“I'm sorry, Mom.”
“I love you,” I told him. “But an apology doesn't give me back the nights you decided not to listen.”
He nodded. He didn't ask for forgiveness on the spot.
Later I asked him to bring me Thomas's old tackle box. Inside was an envelope labeled CEDAR POINT - KEEP SAFE. I hadn't opened it in years.
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It contained a returned check, copies of a canceled option agreement, and a letter in my husband's handwriting.
The first line read: IF GRAHAM WELLER EVER COMES BACK, DON'T TAKE HIS WORD FOR ANYTHING.
