Chapter 8 - SERENA’S LAST EMAIL

A year after Graham was born, Serena emailed me.
I almost deleted it.
Then read.
Madeline,
I’m getting married next month.
Unexpected.
Not Preston.
A man she met after leaving Caldwell.
She wrote:
I almost didn’t tell you. Then I realized there was one thing I should have said clearly before I start another marriage.
She apologized again.
But better.
Not:
I believed him.
Not:
I was in love.
She wrote:
I knew there were signs that contradicted what Preston told me, and I chose the version that gave me what I wanted.
That was honest.
Then:
The afternoon I came to your house, I wanted to see whether you looked like a wife in a dead marriage. When Poppy recognized me, I understood how far I had allowed myself to enter a family that had never agreed I belonged there.
I closed my eyes.
Then:
I am sorry.
No request for forgiveness.
No friendship.
I replied:
Thank you for saying it clearly.
I hope your marriage begins with more truth than ours ended with.
That was all.
We never spoke again.
May you like
Enough.
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