Chapter 9 - The First Family Photo
The second year after the reunion was better.
Not easy.
Better.
Damian learned trains.
All of them.
Steam, electric, bullet, freight, subway, magnetic.
Noah began correcting him less.
Elise continued stealing his watches.
Cassidy became “Aunt Cass,” which made her cry in private the first three times.
Vivien began painting under her real name again.
Her first exhibition after returning was called Storm Rooms.
The largest canvas was dark wood and rain-blue glass, with a gold line across the bottom like a sonogram crease.
Damian stood in front of it for ten minutes.
Vivien came beside him.
“Too obvious?”
“No.”
“You hate it?”
“No.”
“What then?”
He looked at the painting.
“I wish I had followed you into the elevator.”
She closed her eyes.
“I wish I had stayed in the doorway.”
They stood there together.
Two wishes.
Neither possible.
Both true.
On the twins’ fifth birthday, they held the party in the penthouse study.
Vivien chose the room deliberately.
Damian asked three times if she was sure.
She said yes every time.
The dark wood walls were still there.
The rain-streaked windows still there.
The marble desk still there.
But the crystal decanter was gone.
No scattered papers.
No blood.
No secrets.
Balloons covered the ceiling.
Elise wore a gold paper crown and demanded everyone call her “captain.”
Noah built a train track around Damian’s shoes and declared him “mountain.”
Cassidy sat on the couch with frosting on her sleeve.
Vivien stood near the desk, looking down at the floor.
Damian came beside her.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
Then shook her head.
Then laughed softly.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s allowed.”
“I still see it.”
“The glass?”
“The sonogram.”
Damian opened the desk drawer.
Slowly.
Carefully.
He took out the bent photograph.
The same one.
Creased.
Protected in a clear sleeve now.
Vivien’s breath caught.
“You kept it.”
“Every day.”
She touched the plastic sleeve.
“Our first family photo.”
His voice broke.
“Yes.”
Vivien looked toward the children.
Noah was explaining track engineering to Cassidy.
Elise had put a sticker on Damian’s expensive chair.
No one stopped her.
Vivien whispered, “I’m sorry I made you miss them.”
Damian did not answer quickly.
That mattered.
He had learned not to make forgiveness sound cheap.
Finally, he said, “I am sorry you were alone when they were born.”
She looked at him.
“I deserved that.”
“No,” he said. “You were afraid. Fear deserves help, not loneliness.”
Her eyes filled.
“You’re still too kind to me.”
“I’m not kind. I’m choosing what our children inherit.”
Vivien turned toward him.
“What is that?”
He looked at Noah and Elise.
“Not bitterness.”
Before she could answer, Elise shouted, “Cake now or I sue!”
Cassidy burst out laughing.
Noah said, “You can’t sue cake.”
Elise said, “Watch me.”
Damian slipped the sonogram back into the drawer.
Vivien watched him close it.
Not hiding it.
May you like
Keeping it.
There was a difference.
