Dear Julianne,
Then he stopped.
What apology could fit inside an envelope?
Elaine appeared in the doorway.
“You’re writing to her?” she asked.
Warren did not turn around. “Yes.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
He looked back at his wife. “No. I think it’s late.”
Elaine’s eyes were red. She had removed her pearls. Without them, her neck looked bare.
“I loved our family,” she said.
“So did Julianne.”
Elaine flinched.
Warren returned to the page.
After a moment, Elaine entered and sat in the chair across from him.
“I wanted a grandson,” she whispered.
Warren put the pen down.
“I know.”
“My mother-in-law made me feel small for having only one son. I promised myself I would never be that way.” She laughed once, painfully. “And then I became worse.”
Warren did not rescue her from the confession.
Elaine folded her hands in her lap. “Do you think she hates us?”
“She has the right to feel however she feels.”
That answer seemed to age her another year.
