Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94106 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 471(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
She returned her gaze to me and shook her head. There were tears pooled in her eyes. “By the time I realized what I had was enough, and I should’ve been thanking my lucky stars instead of thinking I was missing out on something, it was too late.”
I sat in silence, trying to make sense of everything, but I couldn’t seem to grasp anything in my hands. Nothing could sink in. I knew in my heart I’d never be back here, I’d never see this woman again, so I wanted to make sure to ask her what I needed to ask and say what I needed to say. Hoping things would come to me, I looked around the room, lost in thought. My eyes landed on a framed photo of a little girl. She couldn’t be older than five or six.
No.
Just fucking no.
My voice was so monotone. “Is that your daughter?”
Marie smiled. “Yes. Rebecca.” Her smile wilted. “The divorce was hard on her. I can’t even imagine what you’ve been through…and now coming here and dealing with this.”
I continued to stare at the photo, looking for signs of my father. I had to swallow a giant lump in my throat to ask what I needed to ask. “Is she…my father’s?”
Marie’s eyes grew wide. “Oh! No. God, no. That’s an old picture. Rebecca is going to be ten next month.” She turned around and looked at the photo. “She was about six there, so I can understand why you’d think that. But I can assure you, she was born years before I even met your father.”
Thank God for one thing, I guess. I sat for another minute or two in silence, thinking about what else I needed to know. But really, I’d already found out too much.
I stood. “Thank you for your honesty.”
She nodded and stood. “I’m sorry, Ford. About everything—the affair, your loss, you finding out. Everything. If I could rewind and do it all over, it would never have happened.”
I walked out of Marie Louise Landsford’s office without looking back.
Unfortunately, I didn’t need to look back, because her honesty had already changed everything I saw looking forward.
Chapter 24
* * *
Valentina
I’d stopped listening to music over the years, and I hadn’t even noticed.
I listened in the car, of course. But I didn’t blast it while I was at home cleaning, showering, or cooking anymore, like I had years ago. Lately, though, that had changed. I found myself doing things I hadn’t in a long time—singing along to music when in the shower, dancing while folding the laundry, planting flowers, baking without a party to bring dessert to. I felt lighter and happier than I had in a long time. And whether I wanted to admit it to myself or not, one of the big reasons for that change was the man next door, who was currently on his way back out to Montauk.
A Billy Joel song came on while I was in the shower, and I sang along, belting out “Only the Good Die Young” at the top of my lungs like I was putting on a show for a sold-out crowd. It felt good…so damn good. As I rinsed the last of the conditioner from my hair, I closed my eyes and joined Taylor Swift for an earsplitting performance of “Shake it Off” that culminated in my singing and shimmying the towel to dry off my back. I wrapped my hair in a towel and threw on yoga pants and a tank top. Grabbing my moisturizer, I wiped the fog from the mirror and found a face smiling at me in the reflection—my own. I felt giddy.
This morning I’d done the sunrise yoga class with Bella and then went for a long walk on the beach. Halfway back home, my cell rang. It was the school I’d had a second interview with yesterday. I got the job!
Since then, I hadn’t stopped smiling. And I couldn’t wait to tell Ford. He’d been in a rush to catch his plane home from Chicago when I’d texted him earlier, so I figured I’d save my surprise until he got back to Montauk. My plans were to go to the supermarket and pick up a few things to make his favorite dinner.
Though those plans abruptly changed the minute I opened the bathroom door.
I startled and jumped to find a man casually leaning against the top stair railing a few feet from the bathroom door. But then my eyes bulged and jaw hung open.
“Surprise.” My son smiled and chuckled. “That’s some show you put on. Didn’t think you were ever going to come out of there. I didn’t know you were such a Swiftie, Mom.”
“Oh my God. Ryan! You’re home!” I swamped him in a giant hug.
He laughed and hugged me back.
“What are you doing here? I thought you weren’t going to be able to come home at all this summer because of the internship?”