Chapter 24 Did I Make A Mistake #4
"I can't be angry at any of you anymore." He sipped again as did she. “I wanted to be, but,,”
"No!” she said firmly. “It’s not who you are.”
"I think I’m finally starting to understand why you did it.
" She smiled gently. "But..."He looked toward the backyard.
"I still can't walk away from Carry." His voice was almost apologetic.
"I've tried to sort my feelings out." He started to look frustrated.
"I've prayed." She looked on silently. "I've questioned everything.
" She shifted slightly. "I've looked at every possible angle.
" He shook his head. "And I still love her. "
Janet reached across the table and laid her hand gently over his. "I know."
"But now..." He looked back at her. "...I also know Veronica deserves far more than I've ever given her."
"She does." She watched him wrestling with ideas in his head.
"And I don't know how to reconcile those two truths." Janet squeezed his hand.
"Then perhaps tonight isn't about choosing between two women." Greg frowned slightly.
"What do you mean?”
She smiled warmly. "Tonight..." She took a slow breath. "...is about helping you understand how one little girl came into this world, why three broken hearts made an impossible decision, and how, many years later, those same hearts believed God might use two wounded souls to heal one another."
Greg sat perfectly still. "So..." Janet lifted her wine glass for a small sip before setting it back down.
"You want to know about Malcolm."
"Yes, if you are willing to share that with me."
"You want to know why I became an unmarried mother."
"Yes."
"You want to know why Graciella convinced me to let Vanessa and Jacques raise Veronica."
"More than anything."
"And..." She smiled knowingly. "...you want to know whether I truly orchestrated your meeting with Veronica LaFayette."
Greg nodded once. "I do," he admitted with a very low voice.
Janet rested both hands around her wine glass.
"Then eat while it's hot, my child." She smiled through misting eyes. "Because this story begins long before you—or even Veronica—were ever born." As they ate, she explained methodically how her dad had taken her on a trip to England to meet The Mallory’s. He’d met them when he was helping with the Erronts Family Winery. As partners, they now imported the wine to KC. Edmund had come out to meet them, introducing Malcom to her. “It was love at first sight Greg. We were so taken in with each other that we barely spent any time apart from each other. I fell deeply in love with him, and he with me. A couple of years later, I went on my own to visit where he proposed to me. We made love that night, and I came home with a ring and a present that neither of us expected. When I told him I was pregnant, he sounded excited. We were planning our wedding for weeks then silence. I thought he’d abandoned me, and dad was busy arranging the wedding of my brother to Mischel’s mom. I was young, pregnant and unwed. Those three things were against me, but your grandmother knew me and saw my pain. When I told her everything, she took me in, and told me about her story with my dad.” She took a drink of the wine.
“That changed my life forever.” Greg looked up with anticipation as the story had just paused while she relived the memories in her mind.
She took a few bites and he patiently waited for her to continue.
“Well,” he said eagerly. “What happened next.
She began explaining how her and Vanessa were nearly inseparable growing up’ best friends for life.
Then Vanessa met Jacques while singing at a wedding.
They were young and he was overtaken by her voice, so enamored that he proposed on the spot.
They were wed at that same ceremony. “Veronica was only at seven weeks along within me, so nobody knew. Vanessa got pregnant on their wedding night, and I was excited that we’d be having our babies almost at the same time.
But,” she lowered her head and held the glass firm.
Greg looked up from the beef tips, a roll in his left hand.
“Then came the battle with cervical cancer. Jacques was steadfast, standing beside her like a rock. It made her sick and they couldn’t do the standard treatments because of the pregnancy.
It became difficult for Vanessa and they worried about the results. ”
“This is fascinating. Why haven’t you told this story before?”
Janet looked forlorn at this point, and a single tear dripped from her left eye.
“Because what happened next,” and she sobbed softly for a moment then pulled herself up in her seat, seeing the concern in Greg’s face.
“I’m aright. I just need a moment.” She picked up a tissue to wipe her eyes, then blew her nose, wadding the tissue up and holding it tight in her left hand.
“She went into labor early because she reacted to the medication,” she recalled then looked Greg in the eyes.
“Vanessa had no idea I was already in the hospital with a complication of my own. Graciella had rushed me to the hospital because I slipped on my own water when it broke. I’d fallen, and everyone was concerned I’d lose the baby.
They got Veronica out, but with my hip nearly dislocated, I couldn’t move.
Graciella had been with me for hours when Vanessa was rushed to the ER.
She followed and watched as the doctors struggled to save her and the child.
Then she heard the scream from Vanessa as they told her that her daughter didn’t survive.
Jacques crumpled to the floor, passed out from the emotion of it all.
” She took a breath. “Graciella couldn’t stand that kind of pain in people she loved; she conceived the impossible.
A way to help the four of us. She told me her story again about my dad, and my lost brother.
I understood what she meant, and I longed to help my friend and protect my daughter.
” She paused as it sank in what had been happening.
“I chose in that moment to protect my daughter from the stigma and social disgrace of being illegitimate. Jacques and Vanessa couldn’t believe this gift of love. A Miracle.”