“Would it be all right if I saw you again?”
Parker looked at me.
I did not answer for him.
Finally, he said,
“Maybe. But you have to actually show up.”
Conrad nodded.
“I will.”
I put on my gloves.
“Don’t promise them anything you aren’t prepared to keep.”
He met my eyes.
“I understand.”
“I hope you do.”
PART 7: The Life I Had Already Won
As the helicopter lifted above the mountains, the estate grew smaller beneath us.
Willa leaned against my shoulder.
Miles talked excitedly about the snow.
Audrey opened her cookie box even though I reminded her we had just eaten.
Parker quietly stared out the window.
Then he turned toward me.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Are you happy you came?”
I thought about it.
I had entered that house believing I was returning to a painful chapter of my life.
Instead, I discovered something completely different.
I no longer belonged to that old story.
I had outgrown it.
“Yes,” I said. “I am.”
Parker smiled.
“Me too.”
Eight years earlier, Conrad’s departure had made me believe my future had disappeared.
I had been wrong.
My future had simply taken a form I could not yet imagine.
Four children.
