Chapter 14 - I Saw Conrad Again At Laurel’s New Home
Laurel invited Conrad to her housewarming.
That shocked me.
I asked only once:
“Are you sure?”
She nodded.
“I don’t want him erased. I want him in the amount I choose.”
That was very Laurel.
Conrad arrived alone.
Older-looking.
Quieter.
He brought no expensive gift.
Only a framed photograph.
Laurel at fourteen, standing beside him at a school science fair, holding some ridiculous volcano model.
She laughed when she opened it.
“I forgot this.”
“I didn’t.”
Their eyes met.
Complicated.
She hugged him briefly.
Not father-daughter intimacy restored.
Not stranger distance either.
Something new.
Later, I stood beside Conrad near the kitchen.
Neither of us knew what to say.
Finally he looked at my hand.
No ring.
“You look different.”
“So do you.”
He smiled faintly.
“Better?”
“I didn’t say that.”
He laughed.
For one moment, I remembered why I married him.
Then the moment passed without destroying me.
That was progress too.
Before he left, Conrad said:
“I’m sorry about the ring.”
I looked at him.
“It was never really about the ring.”
May you like
“I know.”
And this time, I believed he did.
