“It became something of an obsession.”
“Every few years I’d try again.”
“I followed your career, you know, read about your teaching awards in the local papers.”
“I was proud of you, Ellaner.”
“I always knew you’d touch lives.”
The reception music started up in the distance. a jazz quartet playing something elegant and expensive.
We should join the party, I knew, but I couldn’t seem to move from this garden corner where my past and present were colliding in the most spectacular way.
“Why now?” I asked.
“Why show up today of all days?”
Theo’s expression grew serious.
“Because I read your husband’s obituary 3 years ago.”
“I wanted to reach out then, but it felt inappropriate so soon after your loss.”
“Then last month, I saw the wedding announcement in the society pages.”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a newspaper clipping.
There it was, the announcement that had filled me with such complicated emotions.
A photo of Brandon and Vivien looking like the golden couple they believed themselves to be.
And beneath it, the details of today’s celebration at the Ashworth estate.
The announcement mentioned that the groom’s mother, Elellanar Patterson, was a retired educator.
Theo’s voice grew soft.
“I knew it was you immediately. After all these years of searching, I found you in the Denver Post wedding section.”
The irony was breathtaking.
After decades of private investigators and searches, fate had delivered my location through my son’s marriage to a woman who had spent the morning making sure I knew how little I belonged in their world.
“So, you came to crash a wedding?”
“I came to see you,” he corrected.
“I had no intention of interfering with your son’s day.”
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