Part 3

“Please be careful of the glass, children.”

Rebecca disappeared into the kitchen and returned with a broom and dustpan. The simple act of sweeping up the broken pieces gave everyone something ordinary to do. The tension did not vanish, but it loosened enough for us to breathe.

I took off my coat. “Maybe we can begin again with a hello.”

Lorraine wiped beneath one eye. “Hello, sweethearts. I’m Lorraine.”

“We know,” June said. “Mom showed us a picture of you holding a Thanksgiving turkey.”

Lorraine looked at me, surprised. “You showed them pictures of me?”

“Yes,” I said. “They deserved to know where they came from. What happened between Grant and me was never their fault.”

Grant lowered himself to the children’s height. He glanced at me before he spoke, and I was struck by how unfamiliar that small pause felt.

“Would it be all right if I said hello?”

I turned to the children. “What do you think?”

Noah shrugged. “Sure.”

Grant looked at them, his eyes wet. “Hi. I’m Grant.”

Eli studied his face. “You look a lot like Noah.”

“Or maybe he looks like me,” Grant said, with a faint smile.

“Are you twins?” he asked the boys.

“We’re fraternal twins,” Noah explained.

“I thought you might be identical,” Grant admitted.

Eli gave a solemn nod. “You’re probably overwhelmed.”

Grant let out a quiet laugh. “That may be true. What does overwhelmed mean?”

June sighed with theatrical patience. “It means there’s too much happening in your brain at once.”

“That happens to me during spelling tests,” Lily added.

This time, Grant’s laugh sounded more natural. For a moment, I remembered the young man who used to make me laugh at the kitchen table, before fear and resentment had made a stranger of him.

Lorraine touched my arm. “Christmas lunch is almost ready. Would you and the children stay?”

“We came all this way to spend Christmas with you,” I said. Then I looked around the hall. “But before we sit down, I need everyone to understand something. The children aren’t here to satisfy anyone’s curiosity. If you want to ask about the divorce or the pregnancy, speak with me privately. They don’t need to carry the adults’ questions.”

Rebecca nodded. “That’s fair.”

For the first time since we had arrived, the house felt less like a stage and more like a home.

The Letter in the Study

Lunch had been prepared for a crowd, though no one had expected our family to be part of it. A few chairs were carried in from the library, and the children sat between their cousins and Lorraine. At first, conversation was hesitant. Then someone asked Noah about soccer, and June began telling a story about her class hamster, and the meal gradually took on the comfortable, overlapping rhythm of a family table.

Lily found Lorraine’s old golden retriever asleep beneath her chair. She was quietly offering him pieces of carrot when I caught her.

“Lily, leave the dog alone, please.”

“Grandma Lorraine said he likes carrots,” Lily blurted out. Then she went pink. “I mean, Mrs. Mercer.”

Lorraine’s expression softened. “You can call me Grandma Lorraine whenever you’re comfortable, sweetheart.”

Lily smiled, and the conversation resumed.

Grant sat beside the woman in the red dress. During lunch, Rebecca introduced her as Natalie Price, a pediatric speech therapist. She seemed kind and thoughtful, and I could see from the way she watched the room that she had been just as surprised as the rest of us.

When dessert came, I went into the kitchen to get coffee. Natalie followed me a few moments later.

“Could I talk with you for a minute?”