Page 77 of Ten Christmases Without You
With her mother’s scrapbook under her arm, she passed the check-in desk and headed through the double doors to her father’s room.
When she walked in, to her utter delight, her dad was sitting up in bed.
“Look at you,” Emmy said, going over to him and giving him a hug.
“The old heart almost took me down, but my will was stronger,” he said.
Emmy pulled up a chair to her dad’s bedside. “Charlie’s here. He’s in the waiting room.”
Her dad’s eyebrows rose.
“He surprised me with a visit when he heard what happened.”
“That’s kind of him.” A small smile lurked at the corners of his mouth.
“I was in the coffee shop down the street. He just appeared and asked if I had a minute.”
From the glint in his eye, her dad made the connection, silently asking if she’d remembered the significance.
“Speaking of Mom,” she said instead, pulling the scrapbook onto her lap. “I’ve been going through this.”
“I’m glad Madison gave that to you. I found it in the back of the closet.”
“I’m so thankful to have it.”
“Learning anything new from your mom?” he asked, fiddling with his IV.
She debated whether now was a good time to bring up her questions. She decided she should wait until he was better.
“Whatever it is, you can ask me.”
She locked eyes with him.
“There are a few pages I didn’t understand,” she said.
“Not understanding your mother’s designs? Ifyoudon’t, I doubt I will.” But there was more behind his words, daring her to say something.
“Well, there are other things in the book too.”
“Like?”
“Are you sure you want to talk about this now?” she asked.
He nodded. “I keep seeing your mother in my dreams, and she tells me I need to say what I know. I didn’t want to, but I wonder if I’m supposed to.”
Emmy put the book down and leaned forward, grasping her dad’s hand. “What is it that you know?”
“I thought it might be the drugs or lack of oxygen to the brain…”
His heart monitor beeped more rapidly, alarming Emmy, but he gave her hand a weak squeeze. “Let me get it out.” He took a deep breath in and released it slowly. “When I met your mom that day, and she was crying, she did tell me why. We just didn’t tell you.”
Emmy hung on his words, waiting for clarity.
“A few weeks prior, she’d left her fiancé. She said she wasn’t crying over him but rather at how she’d broken things off. She wondered if she should’ve said more, done more. But she knewthat if she had, he’d have tried to make it work, and she didn’t love him.”
“It’s odd that Mom would accept an offer of engagement from someone she didn’t love. She was always so decisive.”
“She told me that she was caught up in the romance of it all. She was wowed byhislove for her. She’d never been loved like that by someone before.”
