haven

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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