My Son's Girlfriend Destroyed My Family novel · Chapter 22 of 24
Chapter 22: In Front of Everyone
The church was full on Sunday, which it never is in July.
I took my usual pew on the left, third from the front.
Luke sat on my right in his good suit, and Teddy sat between us with his sore hand in his lap.
Bernice took the aisle seat and set her purse on the floor where she could reach it.
Everybody had seen the clip, and everybody had been at the hearing or heard about it by supper.
Nobody looked at me directly, and every one of them was kind about it.
I saw Alan come in late.
He stood at the back in his one gray suit with his cap in his hand, and he did not sit.
The pastor finished the second hymn and the announcements.
Then he said, "Brother Fennimore has asked to say a few words before the sermon."
The room shifted.
Alan walked down the center aisle.
It was the aisle he had once walked down with Luke in his arms, to have him baptized, with me beside him.
He turned and faced the pews.
"I'm not going to take long," he said.
His voice shook, and he did not pretend it didn't.
"For twenty-six years I kept a secret from my wife. I had a daughter I did not claim. When my son brought her into his life and into my family, I knew who she was, and I said nothing."
A woman near the front put her hand over her mouth.
"My boy Teddy lay in a hospital bed because of what I hid. My wife was beaten in public because of what I hid. I am not here to excuse it."
He looked at the floor, then he looked up.
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