Chapter 14 - WHAT HAPPENED TO THE UNKNOWN WOMAN
Three years after the photograph fell from Evelyn’s legal packet, I saw Lauren again.
At a grocery store.
She recognized me first.
“Claire?”
We stood beside the produce section like two people who once shared a strangely intimate disaster.
“How are you?”
“Good.”
“You?”
“Good.”
Then she asked about Maya.
“She’s seven now.”
Lauren smiled.
“I’m glad.”
No:
Does she remember me?
No:
Tell her I said hello.
Good.
Then Lauren said:
“I've wanted to apologize.”
“You didn’t make the packet.”
“No.”
“You didn't put her in a hole.”
“No.”
“But?”
“I believed Evelyn longer than I should have because the version she gave me made my relationship with David easier.”
That was honest.
“You wanted to believe I was leaving.”
Lauren nodded.
“Yes.”
“And that Maya needed you.”
“Yes.”
We stood quietly.
Then she said:
“I should have asked you directly.”
“Yes.”
Simple.
No absolution ceremony.
No friendship.
Just accuracy.
Before leaving, Lauren added:
“I’m engaged.”
“Congratulations.”
“To someone with no children.”
I laughed before I could stop myself.
She laughed too.
Then we went separate ways.
I never told Maya.
May you like
Lauren had become irrelevant to her life.
That was perhaps the healthiest ending that relationship could have received.
