“This may seem like such a shock. And I’m happy to send you everything I have to verify this.”
“That won’t be necessary,” he said firmly. “When I saw the name, I knew. You see, a love like ours never really leaves your heart, even though the years go on.”
Tears flooded Dahlia’s tired eyes, and she tucked her feet beside her. She wanted to hear him out.
“I’ve never loved anyone the way I loved her.” His voice stuttered. “Never.”
Dahlia’s smile grew as she realized how real it was to him. Could a woman love two men at once? She was beginning to think it was possible. There were important questions to ask, but Gene needed to talk, so she let him go on.
“That summer, we would meet every night at the diner down the road from CBS Studios. I had my two cups of black Hills Brothers coffee, and she had her Lipton Earl Grey tea. It was at seven, after her father returned for the night shift,” he said, still sounding heartbroken.
“Night shift?” Dahlia’s brows furrowed. That seemed weird. Gran had been a grown woman at the time; she hadn’t lived with her father. Maybe she’d been trying to hide the affair.
“He worked on the set ofGunsmoke, your great-grandfather.”
A beep sounded on her end of the line. She glanced at the screen to see who was calling her.
Noah.
He’d finally resurfaced. But his timing couldn’t be worse. Her heart skipped with indecision.This is too important.Now he’d have to wait. “Oh, I had no idea. All I knew was that he was a set designer on Broadway.”
“He wasn’t a nice man, and he was a heavy drinker, which made it worse.”
“It usually does,” Dahlia said, thinking of Spence and all his drunken episodes where his verbal abuse reached an all-time high.
“Her parents didn’t like me. I was Jewish, came from nothing, and was older. I was just a gofer at the studio, waiting on all the big names at the time. I didn’t make much money back then. They didn’t see a future there.”
“Yeah, I figured that much from the letters I found in the basement,” Dahlia interjected.
“You found letters?” His voice rose.
“I did. Hundreds. All unopened.” Dahlia took a breath, realizing how shocking and hurtful this information must have been, even after more than sixty years. “Someone went to great lengths to make sure they were hidden forever.” After hearing more about her great-grandfather, he would have been the likely suspect. But after this conversation, it could have well been her pop who’d hidden them. Especially if he knew the extent of their affair.
“Oh, my.” His voice cracked. “So she never got them?”
“No, she didn’t, Gene.” Dahlia’s heart sank. It was possible that she did get them and never opened them, fearing she might make another choice. But the letter she wrote in 1965 told a different story. She would have at least opened them and read them.
He was quiet. Too quiet.
“Gene?”
“Yes, I’m here,” he said.
“So, you never married?” Dahlia asked.
“Oh, I did. Many times. Too many times. But they just weren’t her.”
“I apologize if this sounds too forward, but did you have any children?” Dahlia rubbed the back of her neck.
“One with my second wife, a daughter named Ingrid, after the actress.”
From Casablanca, Lil’s favorite movie, she thought.
“She passed away a few years back, from cancer.”
“I’m so sorry.” There was a weight in her lungs. He knew loss too. She couldn’t imagine losing a child, no matter what the age. And now it seemed he’d lost two.
“That became the greatest heartbreak of my life after your grandmother.” His voice weakened.
