Page 17 of Willows and Waterlilies

Ellie

After a delicious French lunch, the type you could lose sight of the fact that you are essentially eating platefuls of cheese, Joseph asks his son to wander around the garden with him. I smile as he gets up with a squeeze of my hand, but as soon as he’s out of earshot, I feel incredibly nervous. His mother and I haven’t said much to one another, but I get an uneasy feeling that she knows who I am. As in, the girl who was inadvertently sleeping with her daughter’s husband. She turns to smile at me in such a way, I think she’s feeling just as awkward. My fingers begin to twitch, so I grab hold of my napkin and begin to fiddle with it, purposely staring at the folds of crisp white cotton to avoid meeting her penetrating gaze.

“My son likes you, Ellie,” she eventually says, causing me to shoot my eyes back up to meet her own. “It’s quite delightful to watch him falling for a girl. I was beginning to worry he would never find anyone after Amanda broke his heart.”

“We barely know one another,” I laugh nervously.

“Have you never heard of love at first sight?”

“I have, though I don’t know if I believe in such a notion,” I reply truthfully.

“Elijah’s father and I were living proof of it,” she declares. “Course, we did have our ups and downs.”

“I think most couples do, don’t they?” She merely smiles with a shrug before picking up her drink to sip. “Do you know who I am? I mean, do you know that Elijah and I have met before? That is to say…”

“I know all of it, dear,” she says, still with that warm smile on her face, “and I must apologize for the role I played in all of that ugliness. You mustn’t blame my son too much. I had practically forced him into it.”

“Oh,” I simply say before drinking my own glass of wine, if only to try and numb the embarrassment of this conversation. “You understand I had no idea Jonathan was married. I hope Elijah told you that I instantly ended things with him once I knew.”

“Of course, he did,” she says with a sigh as she watches her son and husband continue to amble about the garden. “If only my daughter had come to her senses too. I suppose that’s my fault though.”

“I don’t understand,” I reply, looking for further explanation.

“Elijah and Kelly’s father cheated on me for years,” she says quite candidly.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I tell her, followed by a large gulp of wine. I’m not sure what else you’re supposed to say to such an admission. “But you seem happy now?”

“Yes, Joseph is quite a different sort, and he completely dotes on me,” she says with a lovestruck smile. “I’ve made my peace with what my first husband did to me. Besides, I suppose I had my role to play.”

“I don’t follow.”

“You must understand, Ellie, back when I had children, people weren’t quite so knowledgeable about such things as depression and the effects of loss. After I had Elijah, I was so overjoyed, and so in love, but during my second pregnancy, my mother died. It did not feel the same; I felt lonely, dark, and so full of guilt. I hid myself away, refused to go out, and ultimately, pushed their father away.”

“That must have been awful,” I tell her, “I am sorry.”

“I often blamed myself for his infidelity,” she says with a sad smile.

“Forgive me if I am speaking out of turn, but I don’t think anyone can blame themselves for their other half playing away from them. Surely, he could see how low you were?”

“It was a different time, dear,” she says, smiling warmly as she places her hand over mine. “Eventually, we forgave one another; I guess we learned to see the other’s point of view.”

“Do you think you’d be so forgiving now?” I ask out of curiosity.

“I would like to think I would have sought help, and with my husband beside me,” she says with a far-off look in her eye. “No, I don’t think I would have been. It is precisely why I persuaded Elijah to make his sister see what her husband was up to. I am sorry you were caught in the crossfire.”

“She has forgiven him then. Your daughter?”

“I guess she has,” she says sadly, “she isn’t speaking to any of us at the moment.”

“That’s…”

“Right, are we ready to go?” Elijah interrupts us with his charming grin.

“Sure,” I reply with a smile, even though his mother has just told me the most heart-breaking background to her life.

“Wonderful, because I have quite the evening planned for us!”

Chapter 5

---