The little girl kicked me so hard in the knee that I almost dropped my glass of water. I caught her, lifted her onto my hip, and glanced over her shoulder at my ex-husband.
Daniel’s smirk had vanished.
Five seconds earlier, he had cornered me near the entrance to my cousin’s wedding reception. His wife, Brooke—the woman he had been secretly seeing while we were married—stood beside him, looking at me as if waiting for my reaction.
“Leaving you was the smartest thing I ever did,” Daniel said.
At that moment, my daughter, Ellie, was tugging at my necklace. “Dad said Mom was with the flowers.”
“I’m right here, my love.” I kissed her forehead. “Where is he?”
“Take my sweater.”
Daniel stared at her face, then looked at mine. “Do you have a daughter?”
“Yes.”
He chuckled, but it sounded forced. “That’s funny. You told me you couldn’t have children.”
“I’ve already told you what the doctor told us,” I said. “Now you tell me the rest.”
Brooke’s gaze immediately turned towards him.
The reception door opened behind us. My husband stepped out, holding a pink sweater and a paper crown that Ellie had made at the children’s table.
Daniel gripped the back of the chair tightly.
“Mark?”
My husband stopped. He didn’t seem surprised. He looked tired.
Ellie reached out to her father. “Dad, I found Mom!”
Mark came over to me and took her hand. Daniel’s eyes darted back and forth between us as if he couldn’t comprehend what he had just seen.
“Are you marrying my brother?” he asked.
“That was three years ago,” I said.
Brooke left Daniel. “You said Mark had moved abroad.”
Mark’s jaw tightened. “Is that what he told you?”
Daniel grabbed Brooke’s wrist. “We need to go.”
She struggled free. Then she looked straight at me and said, loud enough for him to hear, “Ask him what happened to the letter you sent after the divorce.”
I haven’t written to Daniel since the divorce.
But I already sent one to Mark.
For five years, I believed my letter had been ignored. At the wedding, I realized someone else had read it before – and Brooke knew why.
Mark’s hand remained in the same position in Ellie’s hand.
“What letters?” he asked.
I stared at him. “That letter I sent to your office after the divorce. I asked you to tell your mother the truth. I didn’t want her to believe Daniel’s story about us.”
Mark shook his head. “I never understood.”
Daniel tried to lead Brooke toward the exit. She stood still. “He kept it,” she said. “I found the envelope in his desk drawer last week.”
My throat tightened. Daniel had told his family I’d left him for Mark. In reality, Mark and I hadn’t spoken for years. I wrote because his mother had stopped answering my calls, and I couldn’t bear letting her think I’d betrayed her too.
“Mommy?” Ellie whispered.
Mark crouched. “Can you take your crown to Aunt Rachel? Tell her we’ll be inside in a minute.”
Our cousin Rachel stood just inside the reception doors. She took Ellie’s hand and led her back to the children’s table. Only when Ellie was out of earshot did Mark face his brother.
“Why intercept a letter meant for me?”
Daniel shrugged. “It was years ago.”
“Then it should be easy to explain,” Brooke said. Her voice shook. “Show them the back.”
Daniel went pale. “Brooke, stop.”
She pulled a folded page from her purse. It was my handwriting: four sentences asking Mark to tell his mother Daniel had been involved with someone else before our marriage ended.
On the reverse was a note in Daniel’s writing. Keep Mom away from her. Mark cannot see this until the house closes.
I looked up. “What house?”
Mark answered slowly. “Mom was selling her place that summer. She’d offered to lend me part of the proceeds so I could buy into the repair shop.”
“She changed her mind,” Daniel said quickly.
“No,” Brooke said. “Daniel told her you and Mark were secretly buying a house together. He showed her a copy of this letter, with everything about the affair covered up.”
The floor seemed to tilt. My words had been used to make Daniel’s lie look true.
Mark held out his hand. Brooke gave him the page.
“Why tell us now?” I asked her.
“Because yesterday his mother called me. She found out Mark was in town for the wedding and asked if I knew why he’d never answered her.” Brooke swallowed. “Daniel told me to say I didn’t. Then I found this.”
A phone buzzed in Daniel’s pocket. He checked the screen and turned it facedown.
Mark had already seen the caller’s name. “Mom’s here?”
Daniel stepped between him and the reception doors. “Don’t drag her into this tonight.”
From behind the doors, a woman’s voice called, “Mark?”
Daniel turned toward the voice before any of us moved.
His mother, Helen, stood in the doorway with her hand on the frame. She looked from Mark to me, then to the folded letter in his hand. Her face changed when she recognized the handwriting.
“Is that the letter?” she asked.
Daniel rushed to her. “Mom, this isn’t the place.”
Helen stepped around him. “I’ve waited five years to hear from your brother. I’ll decide where I stand.”
Mark led us into the lounge across the hall while Rachel quietly shut the reception doors.
In the lounge, Brooke gave Helen the page. Helen read my four sentences first. Then she turned it over.
I watched her read Daniel’s note twice.
“You said she wrote to tell Mark they were moving in together,” Helen said.
“I said I thought they were,” Daniel replied.
“No. You showed me the top half of her letter. You told me the rest was too cruel to repeat.”
Daniel looked at Brooke. “You went through my desk?”
“You asked me to find your passport,” she said. “This was under our mortgage papers.”
