At My Baby Shower He Celebrated Another Woman’s Child Chapter 31
Half a year after the project launched, my mother sent a letter through my lawyer.
She said my father had restored the guest suite to how it once was.
Every trace of Sadie had been removed. They had placed a pot of irises by the window.
At the end of the letter, she asked:
*May we come see Iris? Even from a distance, just once?*
I didn’t reply.
Iris didn’t need their belated visit.
And I didn’t need my parents’ guilt to prove I had once been loved.
The monthly support payments continued on schedule.
That was a responsibility I had agreed to.
Beyond that, there was nothing.
Brooke came once, too.
She stood across the street from the center and didn’t come in. She only asked the receptionist to give me an old photo frame.
Inside was our college graduation photo.
On the back, she had written:
*I’m sorry. I finally understand that being jealous of someone is not a reason to hurt them.*
I took the photo out and fed it through the office shredder.
Twenty years of friendship had ended the moment she helped Sadie write that lie.
A late-coming understanding couldn’t bring it back to life.
Graham never sent another letter.
Occasionally, I heard things through my lawyer.
He had left Charleston and no longer used the Mercer name.
Some said he still wore the engagement ring.
Others said he just sat and stared for hours whenever it rained.Â