My Brother, My Wife, and Their Son novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Apology

The club found us a small room off the lobby, with a sofa, a lamp and a tray of cold coffee.

Margery sat in the armchair.

Mom sat on the sofa with her knees together and her handbag on them.

Her mascara had run, and nobody had offered her a tissue.

I stood by the door with my back to it.

"Take your time," Margery said to Mom. "I've had thirty-two years of it. A few more minutes won't hurt me."

Mom's mouth worked.

"I never wanted any of this to come out like that. In front of everyone."

"How would you have liked it to come out?"

"Not at all," Mom said, and then heard herself. "I mean, I don't know."

"That's the first honest thing you've said," Margery said.

Mom looked at her bag.

"I have something for him."

She opened the clasp with fingers that kept missing it.

Inside lay a blue envelope, soft and gone yellow at the corners.

The ink on the front had faded, but I could read the name.

It was addressed to me, at a post office box in Ohio.

"It's the first one," Mom said. "The card for his third birthday. It came in the spring after we moved."

"You burned them," I said.

"I burned the rest. I couldn't burn that one." She held it out in both hands. "I kept it in the bottom drawer of your father's cabinet. I took it out every few years and put it back."

"For what?"

"I don't know."

I did not take it.

"You have two choices," Margery said.

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