Chapter 7 - WHAT ELAINE KNEWElaine met Eli once.
He was three.
April showed me a photograph.
Not secret-camera evidence.
A normal picture in a playground.
Elaine sat on a bench.
Eli stood beside her holding a toy truck.
My wife looked scared.
Happy.
Heartbroken.
Everything.
“She asked permission before meeting him,” April said.
“Why didn’t she tell me?”
“You’d have to ask her.”
Impossible.
Then April softened.
“She said you had taken Brian’s side and she didn’t want to turn your marriage into a trial.”
That sounded like Elaine.
Too much.
“She also said she wanted evidence first.”
April gave her the DNA report.
Elaine confronted Brian.
Again.
Brian told her the laboratory had mishandled the sample and he was arranging another test.
He never did.
Elaine returned to April two months later.
Brought Eli a book.
Then stopped.
Why?
Elaine wrote April a letter.
April had kept it.
She allowed me to read a copy.
I believe you. I also believe I cannot force Brian to become the father Eli deserves by showing up as a grandmother over Brian’s objection. I am trying to decide what does the least harm. I am sorry that my uncertainty has become another burden for you.
My eyes blurred.
Then:
Walter does not know I visited. I intend to tell him when I understand what Brian is willing to do.
She never told me.
Maybe because Brian threatened to cut her off.
Maybe illness intervened later.
Maybe shame.
I would not fabricate the missing reason.
But she knew.
Not perfectly.
Enough.
My wife had died carrying a family truth I had helped make difficult to tell.
That realization took longer to forgive than Brian’s lie.
Because I could not argue with Elaine.
Could not apologize.
Could not ask:
Why didn’t you trust me enough?
May you like
The answer was partly:
Because last time, I told her to stop asking.
Related Stories
