ADVERTISEMENT
I’d spent fifteen years raising my daughters, saving every invitation I’d missed and every returned photo their mother refused to acknowledge. When she showed up at our daughter’s wedding with the man she’d chosen over us, I thought I was ready to remain silent once again. Then my daughter asked me to open the one box I’d never wanted opened.
Fifteen years after my wife abandoned me and our six daughters and disappeared with her wealthy boss, she texted me with the same nonchalance she would have used to ask about the weather.
I was in the kitchen, checking the final payments for my eldest daughter, Adele,’s wedding, when my phone vibrated.
I hadn’t heard from Maya in years. Not for the girls’ birthdays, not for graduations, not even when Shannon, our youngest daughter, at eight years old, asked me if her mother would recognize her voice if she called.
But there it is.
“I’ll be at our daughter’s wedding, Robert. What a shame it would be for my new family if I skipped an event like that, right? I don’t expect anything from you.”
Adele stood in the doorway, clutching a folder full of wedding invoices to her chest. She was twenty-eight and beautiful in a way that still left me speechless.
“What happened?” she asked.
“She’s your mother.”
“What did he want?”
I gave her my phone.
She read the message. “It said ‘my new family.’”
“I saw.”
“Not an ‘I miss you.’ Not an ‘I’m sorry.’ Not even a ‘Can I come?’ She’s bringing Harry.”
“I’d bet on it.”
Harry was the man Maya had left with. Her boss. The man with the car, the vacations, the money, and the life she claimed she deserved.
I was standing in the hallway with nine-month-old Shannon in my arms.
Adele was thirteen and barefoot on the stairs. Piper was eight. The triplets, Penelope, Mia, and Lucille, were five and sobbing in the living room because they couldn’t understand why their mother was packing.
“Maya, slow down,” I begged. “We can talk after the girls are asleep.”
“That’s all we do, Robert,” she snapped. “We talk. We count the bills. We try to make the groceries last. And pretend it’s enough.”
I picked Shannon up and hugged her tighter to my chest. “That’s enough.”
Maya looked at our little girl, then back at me.
“You can’t just abandon six children.”
Her eyes sparkled. “You can’t give me the life I want. But Harry can. He bought me a brand new car and even took me to the Maldives, Robert. Do you understand the kind of life he’s offering me? The kind of life I deserve?”
“Maya,” I whispered. “Our daughter can hear you.”
He glanced at Adele. “Then maybe she’ll learn not to settle.”
Then the door slammed: no kiss for Shannon, no promise to call, just the door closing as six girls simultaneously became my entire world.
Back in the kitchen, Adele sat down across from me.
“I can say no,” I said. “This is your wedding.”
“Tell her she’s welcome.”
My blood ran cold. “Adele.”
“He’s not coming for you. He’s coming to perform.”
“I know.”
“Then why did he let him?”
Continued on the next page
ADVERTISEMENT
