by Holly Rayner
after she died and I found out about it… I almost sold it. Honestly, I would have if she hadn’t put measures in place to stop me.”
“I’m confused Dad, what does all of this have to do with now?”
“The house was the one that Adele grew up in.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. That house had been the source of a lot of Adele’s angst as a child. She’d wanted to finish growing up there… she had planned on raising her kids there… we sat up one whole night and I held her while she cried and showed me pictures from when she lived there with her parents. She told me that when she was a little girl, she would picture herself getting married in the big backyard and her mother would sometimes join her fantasy and they would talk about decorations and music… this whole time, my family owned it. Was this going to damage the relationship that we just finally put back together? “I am having a hard time processing this. What did Mom plan on doing with the house?”
“She planned to give it back to Adele. She had the deed put in Adele’s name, that was why I couldn’t sell it. Instead of giving it to her, I continued to pay the taxes and pay for the upkeep.”
I was staring at him, mouth wide open. What did he expect me to do with this news? He was giving me information that would likely strip away any progress that he and Adele had made and maybe cause more strife between her and me. Yet, it was also information that would make her happy. I wished that everything this family did was not so incredibly messed up. Sometimes I felt like my head would explode from all of it. “What am I supposed to do with this information, Dad?” I finally asked him.
“You can tell her. Or, if you would like, I will. I brought the deed. The house is hers and she needs to know about it, I suppose…”
“Are you telling me because you think I might choose not to tell her?”
“I came here with the intentions of making this final confession to her. I don’t expect her to forgive me, but my conscience wouldn’t be completely clear until I told her. Then when I walked in and realized this wasn’t just a party for the company… it was your engagement party, I started re-thinking it. She looks happy and so do you. I don’t want to throw any wrenches in your works… I’ve done enough of that in your life… and hers.” He took a folded set of papers out of his breast pocket and handed them to me. I looked down at them, it said, “Deed of Trust.” Damn him and his greedy old soul!
“I won’t keep this from her,” I said.
He nodded. “I didn’t think that you would, but you’re still my son and I had to give you that option.”
“Dad, just so we’re clear, I do not ever plan on keeping anything from Adele.”
“Good,” he said. “That’s good. You’re a better man than me son. I have one more thing that I would like to give you.” I wasn’t sure that I wanted it. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box and handed it to me. “I saw that she had a ring already, but your Mom wanted you to have this.”
With trembling hands and tears filling my eyes, I opened the box. The antique ring that my mother had worn for as long as I could remember on her left hand now sparkled underneath the twinkly lights. She loved this ring. My father had given it to her when he proposed… it had belonged to his mother and to her mother before that.
“Thanks,” I said. I was such a mess of conflicting emotions inside. I didn’t know whether to thank him or punch him in the nose. I knew that he was trying. He just had such an odd way of doing things.
“Tell Adele I said goodnight and once again, I’m sorry.”
I looked up at him. I could see Adele standing near the back door, talking to one of the guests. I held the deed back out to him and said, “No. If she ever chooses to forgive you for all of this, it’s going to be because you were man enough to face her and tell her what you’ve done. I know that you could have kept this a secret forever. I don’t believe this excuses you from what you did, but I am thankful that you chose to tell her now.”
He looked at the deed like it was a snake and he was afraid it was going to bite him. My father wasn’t afraid of anything… ever. A few weeks ago, he would have delighted rubbing this in her face. Now he’s giving it back and he looked like he was going to be sick. I suppose that remorse is a hard pill to swallow for some. He finally took it and turned towards where Adele was now coming towards us. I smiled at her when she was a few feet away and then I kissed her cheek.
“There is something my father needs to tell you. I’ll see to the guests who are leaving while the two of you talk.” It was getting late and the party was winding down. Adele looked almost as unwilling to be left alone with him as he was with her, but they both needed to do this.
ADELE
As Seth walked away I couldn’t help but wonder if this was some strange sort of revenge for me leaving him and James alone. James looked as nervous as I felt. He was holding something in his hand, clutching it like he was afraid it was going to blow away, out over the river. He was also just staring at me and making me more uncomfortable so I finally said, “Thank you again for coming. I know it means a lot to Seth for you to be here.”
He nodded and I was afraid he was going to lapse back into that weird stare. Instead he said, “Can we sit?”
“Sure.” He led me over to a wrought iron bench that sat on the side of the property. It was somewhat secluded by the big trees and it looked out across the lake. “It’s so pretty here,” I said. I wasn’t just looking to make conversation, it really was beautiful. The lake looked silver in the reflection of the bright, full moon, and there was a soft breeze blowing that caused the water to just ripple and roll slightly, as if dancing to music that only we could hear.
“It is beautiful,” he said. “Seth’s mother loved it here.”
“Yes, he told me it was her favorite house.”
“Adele, I know that I confessed a lot of my sins to you that night at the estate. I asked for your forgiveness, but until you know the whole story I don’t deserve it.”
I suddenly felt a hand clutching at my insides and squeezing them. The whole story? What was left to tell? “What else is there that I need to know?” I asked him.
He looked out at the lake and cleared his throat… he was stalling for time, I think. Then finally, he launched into it. He told me how he and his wife used to sit out here and talk and he told me how angry she had been with him when he told her about me. He said he had callously told her that someone else’s child was not their problem. They were here to build a legacy for their own. He said that she had been sickened by that, telling him he was building a legacy of lies. She had refused to speak to him for weeks and she had even taken Seth and gone to stay at the house in the Hamptons without him. He thought she was filing for divorce when he finally went out to get them and found her meeting with an attorney. When the attorney left, she told him what she’d done… she had bought my parent’s home… my home.
“She bought my house?” I felt a lump building in my throat and I couldn’t swallow it down.
“Yes,” he said, handing me the papers in his hand. It was the deed to the house I’d lost so long ago… more than a house, my home. “Now, you know every horrible thing I did to your family. I’m truly sorry, Adele.” He stood up and said, “I wish you and Seth nothing but luck and love.” He started to walk away. When I called after him, he turned and with a reluctant expression he said, “Yes?”
“I’m through with grudges. I’m tired of hate and negativity. I want to go into my marriage and my new life with Seth with nothing threatening to come between us. I know that we will argue… probably mostly over the business, but you are the only family that either of us have. I don’t want him to do without his father for my sake and I don’t want children we have someday to do without a grandfather.” I put the deed to my chest and glanced over at Seth who was eyeing us nervously. I was sure that if I wanted James thrown out on his ear and ordered never to return, Seth would do that for me. Just knowing that was enough. “I want to b
ury all of this bad stuff from the past and move forward.” I looked down at the deed then and couldn’t help smiling as I said, “I want to get married in my own backyard.”
~
CHAPTER NINE
~
ADELE
The flower girl was dressed in a beige lace dress with a halo of fresh flowers twisted through her long brown hair. She stood at the end of the aisle next to the little ring bearer, all dressed up in his tiny little black tuxedo and holding a pillow to which the rings we would wear for the rest of our lives were attached. As the music began they started walking and the little girl threw white flower petals out of the delicate basket she carried on her arm. The flower girl was Harlan’s granddaughter and the ring bearer was a distant cousin of Seth’s. We didn’t know many children, so for our wedding we’d had to search for these two. As I stood watching from the white bridal tent, I gently lay my hand across my stomach and hoped that would all change soon.
I watched their procession to the altar where Seth and his best man and groomsmen waited. I couldn’t see Seth’s face from here, but I could see how sharp the rest of him looked in his white tuxedo with black tie and cummerbund. He was so handsome that he still took my breath away sometimes the way he had that first day I’d walked into his office. I never dreamed that we would be here… I would have told anyone who said this would ever happen that they were insane, but here we were.
The yard was decorated in beige and gold, and white flowers adorned everything in sight. The chairs for the guests were covered in lace and the wedding cake glistened from underneath another tent not far away. The little pond had been filled with rose petals and the scent of all the flowers filled my nose. I hadn’t wanted a big, fancy wedding, but Seth and I hadn’t wanted to insult anyone who might have expected to be invited either. Being CEO’s of such a large company meant lots of clients and business associates that would at least hope for, if not expect, an invitation. Then there were the people from the society that Seth had grown up in. He wasn’t a huge part of that world any longer, but there were some families that had been close to theirs since before he was born. He didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or leave anyone out.
We compromised and I got to have it outdoors in the backyard of my family home that Seth and I would soon be moving into… and it was large enough for almost three hundred guests.
The weather was a perfect, warm day in May and the sun shone down on the wedding party and guests below as my matron of honor, my friend Elise from college, walked down the aisle now. My stomach was full of butterflies but not because I had any doubts about doing this, but because I couldn’t wait. Seth and I have been living together now since September and it was definitely not all sunshine and roses. We were both headstrong at times and we both liked things a certain way, but the love that we felt for each other overshadowed the rest of it and I haven’t regretted my decision to say yes to his proposal once.
Today he would be putting his mother’s ring on my hand. I had kept the one he bought me and asked him to wait and slip the “real” one on my finger on our wedding day. It seemed to have more significance that way. I heard the wedding march begin and suddenly, with a little bit of panic in my chest, I realized that my escort wasn’t here. I hadn’t seen him at all. Oh God! What if this is some kind of strange, twisted, final revenge?
“Hello Adele, you look beautiful.”
I turned towards the voice. It was my escort, James. I smiled and said, “For a second there I thought that you weren’t going to show up.”
He smiled back, “I like to make an entrance,” he said. “Are you ready for this?”
I was. “Yes, I’m ready.” I took his arm and as we walked down the aisle and all of the guests stood and watched us as we passed. They were all no doubt thinking the same thing that I was. How ironic that the man I’d hated for so long and I’d blamed for ruining my life would be the one walking me towards the life I always wanted. I watched Seth’s face as I came towards him and I thought about the night I told him I wanted James to walk me down the aisle.
***
“What?” he had said with a half-smile. He thought I was kidding.
“I want your father to give me away at our wedding. Do you think he will agree?”
“I… I guess he probably will. He’s grown to love you as much as I do… but won’t that be strange for you?”
“No. I think it will be perfect. It will be like bringing a lifetime of pain full-circle towards the light,” I said. “We’ve all made terrible mistakes and we’ve all paid for them… James most of all.”
Seth laughed and said, “That’s because his were the worst and the most.”
I laughed too. It was good that finally, I could laugh about it. “Yes, they were. But he’s done everything within his power over the past eight months to make up for it.” The business was booming thanks to both mine and Seth’s hard work, and thanks also in part to James working for us as a “consultant.” It made him feel needed and he had done an amazing job, keeping us on the right track financially.
“Okay then,” Seth had said. “Ask him.”
I’d gone to the estate alone and when Hannah let me in, James greeted me with a kiss on the cheek. I looked around and remembered the first time I was in the house. It was that awful night of the ball when James had recognized me. We had really come a long way.
“Adele, it’s always good to see you, but what brings you out today?” he’d asked me.
We sat down and Hannah brought us some tea and after I’d taken a sip I said, “I came to ask you if you’d do me the honor of walking me down the aisle when I marry your son.”
James choked on his tea. Then he stared at me for a long time, speechless, before finally saying, “Are you sure?”
