Lorraine remained beside the children.
She kept looking at me.
I could tell she had more questions.
Perhaps she had been waiting for years to understand what happened between her son and me.
Perhaps she had believed the story Terrence told her.
I didn't know.
But I wasn't going to change the truth to make anyone comfortable.
"Keahu, did you really have no way to contact us?"
I shook my head.
"Terrence changed his number."
She looked at him.
He stared at the floor.
"I didn't know," she said.
I believed that she might not have known.
But I also knew that her son's decision had left me alone with four children.
I didn't want to argue about what Lorraine had or hadn't been told.
The children were sitting nearby.
They were listening.
I wanted to be careful.
"I tried to reach him when I first found out I was pregnant," I said. "He wouldn't listen."
Lorraine's eyes filled again.
"Before the divorce?"
"Yes."
She looked at Terrence.
He rubbed his hands together.
His fiancée stood quietly near the table.
The ring box remained beside her.
I could see that she was no longer interested in pretending this was an ordinary Christmas dinner.
Terrence finally spoke.
"I was young."
I looked at him.
"So was I."
He lowered his head.
"I didn't know what to do."
I took a breath.
"Neither did I."
For a moment, the room was still.
I remembered being twenty-five.
I remembered how frightened I had been when I realized I would have to raise a child without the person I had married.
I remembered the questions I had asked myself.
How would I manage?
How would I protect the baby?
What would happen when the children grew older and wanted to know about their father?
Those questions had once kept me awake.
But I had found a way through them.
Not because everything had been simple.
Because I had no choice but to keep going.
Terrence looked at the children.
"Why didn't you tell them about me?"
I looked at him carefully.
"I never told them they didn't have a father."
He seemed confused.
I continued.
"I simply didn't teach them to hate someone they hadn't met."
That answer surprised him.
I could see it.
He had probably expected anger.
Perhaps he thought I had spent years telling the children terrible things about him.
But I hadn't.
They knew there was a father who wasn't present in their lives.
They knew they had grandparents somewhere.
That was enough for their age.
I wasn't going to fill their childhood with resentment.
Terrence looked down.
His mother reached for Savannah's hand.
The little girl allowed her to hold it.
Lorraine smiled through her tears.
I watched them together.
It was strange.
For years, I had imagined what it might be like if the children ever met Terrence's family.
I had wondered whether they would be welcomed.
Whether someone would recognize their resemblance.
Whether they would feel comfortable.
Now the moment was happening.
And I felt two things at once.
Relief.
And sadness.
Relief that the children were finally meeting their grandparents.
Sadness because so much time had already passed.
Lorraine looked at me again.
"Can I ask how you've been?"
I nodded.
"I'm well."
She glanced around the room, perhaps noticing that I wasn't the person she had expected to see.
"I mean… how have you managed?"
I smiled faintly.
"One day at a time."
I didn't give her a list of everything I had overcome.
I didn't explain my work.
I didn't describe the life I had built.
I didn't need to.
The children were already beside me.
They were the clearest answer.
Terrence looked toward me.
"You're doing well?"
I met his eyes.
"Yes."
He seemed surprised.
I wasn't.
He had invited me believing I was someone who needed to be reminded of what she had lost.
He hadn't considered that I might have found something far more important.
His fiancée finally walked toward him.
"Terrence, we need to speak."
He nodded.
But before they could leave, Lorraine spoke again.
"Please don't go yet."
She looked at me.
"I haven't even had the chance to welcome my grandchildren."
I glanced at the children.
Mason was smiling at something Wyatt had said.
Delilah was looking at the Christmas decorations.
Savannah was still beside Lorraine.
I felt my expression soften.
"There's no need to rush."
Lorraine nodded.
Then she looked at the children.
"Would you like to spend some time with Grandma?"
They looked at me.
I smiled.
"That's okay."
The four of them nodded.
And for the first time that morning, the room began to feel a little less like a confrontation.
It felt like a family meeting people they should have known years earlier.
Terrence was still standing apart.
I could see him watching.
He had missed eight years.
And nothing in that room could give them back.
Click here to continue reading: PART 8: While His Mother Tried to Know Her Grandchildren, I Realized the Biggest Difference Between Us Was Everything That Happened After He Left
Eight Years After He Abandoned Me, My Ex-Husband Sent an Invitation That Revealed Exactly What He Still Thought of Me
Part 7 of 20
