That stopped me. “Mortgage papers?”
Brooke shook her head. “Ours. We were looking at refinancing. I wasn’t searching for anything about you.”
Mark put the letter on the coffee table. “Tell her about the shop.”
Helen sat down. Her hands trembled. “I’d offered Mark a loan from the sale of my house. Daniel told me Mark planned to use it to buy a place with you. He said you’d both laughed about making me pay for your new life.”
“I never even knew about your offer,” I said.
“I know that now.” Her voice nearly broke. “But I believed him then. I canceled the loan, and Mark lost the chance to become a partner.”
Mark pulled up a chair across from her. “You could have asked me.”
“I tried. You wouldn’t take my calls.”
“You told me you couldn’t bear to speak to me again.”
Helen looked at Daniel. He didn’t meet her eyes.
Each had been waiting for an apology the other didn’t know they owed. Daniel had carried their messages until they stopped trying.
“Why?” Mark asked him. “What did you get out of it?”
Daniel folded his arms. “You always believed you could fix everything. Mom believed it too. I was tired of watching her hand you opportunities.”
“You had your own job,” Mark said.
“And you had her money ready whenever you wanted it.”
“It was a loan, Daniel.”
Helen looked up. “I offered you help that year as well. You refused.”
“Because I didn’t want to owe you,” he snapped.
Brooke sat apart from him, her shoes in her hands. She had known he was married when they met. I wondered how much else she’d believed.
“Did you know he told them I had an affair with Mark?” I asked.
She hesitated. “He told me that you and Mark got close after he left. I believed him.”
“We didn’t speak until a few months after the divorce,” Mark said. “I ran into her at a fundraiser. We were both surprised the other would even talk.”
We spent that first meeting comparing the stories we’d been told. Our friendship turned into love after Daniel left my life.
“And Ellie?” Helen asked softly.
“Our daughter,” I said. “She’s four.”
Helen blinked back tears. Daniel had made her miss the first four years of her granddaughter’s life. I saw her realize it before she said a word.
“I could have known her,” she whispered.
Mark leaned forward. “I wrote you when she was born.”
“I never received anything.”
“Daniel had the address you were staying at,” Mark said. “I asked him to make sure you got the card.”
Daniel shook his head. “I don’t remember a card.”
“You didn’t have to deliver it,” Helen said. “You could have given Mark my number when it changed. I asked you to.”
Brooke rose. “I have the card.”
We all turned toward her. “It was in the same desk drawer,” she said. “I didn’t understand what it was until I saw the picture.”
She opened her purse and took out a small envelope with Mark’s writing on the front. Inside was a newborn photo of Ellie, wrapped in a yellow blanket. Helen touched the edge of the picture with one finger.
Daniel stared at the floor. Whatever excuse he’d planned, he let it go.
“I was angry,” he said. “I thought if Mom found out you had a child together, she’d forgive both of you and act like what happened to me didn’t matter.”
“What happened to you?” Helen asked. “You ended your marriage. Then you made sure the rest of us ended our relationships too.”
He opened his mouth, but she held up the card. “I need you to leave me alone tonight.”
Brooke put on her shoes and stood beside the door. Daniel followed her into the hall, asking her to wait. She said she would arrange her own ride home. I didn’t know what she’d decide about their marriage.
Helen stayed in the lounge with us. Mark asked if she wanted to meet Ellie. She said yes, then asked whether Ellie would be frightened of her.
“She likes anyone who listens to her stories,” I said. “You can start there.”
Rachel brought Ellie out a few minutes later. She was still wearing her paper crown and carrying two slices of cake on a plate. She offered one to Helen without being asked.
“I’m Ellie,” she said. “Are you at the wedding too?”
Helen smiled through her tears. “I am. I’m your grandma Helen, if that’s okay with you.”
Ellie considered this. “Do you like cake?”
“Very much.”
“Good. Dad says weddings have the best cake.”
Mark laughed, and for the first time that night it sounded easy. Helen didn’t ask Ellie for a hug. She sat beside her and listened while Ellie explained the crown, the dancing, and why she had saved the bigger slice for her mom.
Later, after the newlyweds had left, Helen asked Mark if she could call him the next day. He said she could. They exchanged their own numbers before we went home. Neither needed Daniel to carry another message.
At the door, Ellie slipped her hand into mine. “We found you,” she said, pleased with herself.
“You did,” I told her.
Mark held the door for Helen, who walked out beside us with Ellie’s paper crown balanced carefully on her head.
