Their grandmother lowered the photo and gave the sisters, each one of them, a pointed look. “No. I am not all right.”
Emma set her hand over Gram’s. “What’s wrong? Who is that?”
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong. You girls have it all wrong about your mom and dad. I’ve kept it to myself for all these years, thinking I was doing right by Stanley, but I just can’t do it anymore. It’s not right.”
Maddy felt a terrible foreboding in her gut. “What’s not right?”
Gram looked from one of her granddaughters to the other, her lips firm, her face resolute. “Your father loved you girls very much. As much as a man can love his children—I have no doubt about that, and I don’t want you to either.”
“Of course not, Gram,” Emma said.
“We know that,” Nora said.
“But he wasn’t perfect.” Gram’s eyes went glassy as she covered her mouth with trembling fingers. “Oh, he was far from perfect.”
Nora pulled the box from the bed and set it on the floor. “What are you trying to say, Gram?”
Uneasiness stirred inside Maddy. She had the childish urge to put her hands over her ears. She had a terrible feeling that whatever Gram was about to say would forever change her perspective of her father. She had wanted to know him better. But had she really wanted to know the truth? Suddenly she wasn’t sure.
“You know he traveled a lot for his job. He was gone so much.” Gram shook her head. “I was against his taking that job. It’s not good for a man to be away from his family so much.
“But it was good money, and it allowed your mom and dad to have the lifestyle they wanted. As the years went by, I thought I must’ve been wrong. Your mom and dad seemed more or less fine with the arrangement, and you girls were thriving.”
Gram’s eyes teared up, and she gave them a look of despair. “But things aren’t always as they seem. Girls... I’m afraid your dad met somebody on one of his trips.”
Maddy’s breath left her body. No. He didn’t.
The girls traded looks of disbelief.
“He— Are you saying Daddy had an affair?” Emma asked. “No, he wouldn’t do that. He loved Mama.”
“He did,” Gram said. “He seemed happy with your mother. But humans are oh-so-fallible, girls. Sometimes we do things that defy logic or explanation.”
“How long did it go on?” Nora asked.
Maddy’s breath expanded in her lungs. “Did Mama know?”
“I can’t believe he’d do that,” Emma said.
Gram’s eyes pierced each of theirs. “There’s more, I’m afraid. He was apparently in love with this other woman too. She didn’t know about your mother or about you. Your daddy... He went ahead and married this other woman.”
Maddy’s lips went lax. She blinked. Married another woman? Her chest tightened painfully at the betrayal. Both on their behalf and their mother’s.
“What?” Nora said on a breath.
“But he was already married to Mama,” Emma whispered.
Gram nodded, her eyes leaking tears. “The marriage to this other woman wasn’t legal, of course. But she had no way of knowing that. As far as she was concerned, her husband was off traveling for his job—just as your mother assumed.”
Maddy swiped at her wet cheeks. “This isn’t true. It can’t be true.”
Gram simply nodded sadly.
“Are you sure, Gram?” Nora asked. “How do you know all this?”
“Nadine—this woman—came to see me several weeks after your dad passed. When Stanley failed to return home, she called his employer and found out what happened to him. She hunted me down. Your dad had told her he was estranged from his mother.”
Gram’s face crumpled and Maddy leaned in, putting her arms around her. “Oh, Gram.”
