Instead, the GPS displayed an unfamiliar street in a town 20 minutes away.
My hands went cold.
Had Graham been visiting another woman? Had he maintained a second life during all those afternoons he claimed to be running errands?
I nearly switched off the engine. But I had spent 40 years going only where Graham allowed me to go.
“I need to know.”
I followed the directions into an old neighborhood lined with brick houses and mature trees. When the GPS announced that I had arrived, I looked through the passenger window and stopped breathing.
Blue shutters. Rosebushes. A white porch swing where I had once sat as a young bride.
It was June’s house—the home where Graham had grown up.
That explained why he might have labeled it “Home,” but not why he had been visiting without telling me.
For nearly 40 years, Graham had insisted that June despised me. He allowed her occasional visits with our children, but only when he was present and I stayed home. He had turned our supposed feud into accepted family history.
I climbed out and rang the bell.
June opened the door. Her eyes moved from my face to Graham’s truck.
“You drove here?”
“I received my license yesterday.”
Her expression collapsed.
“Then he never told you.”
“Told me what?”
She stepped aside. “You’d better come in.”
We sat in her lavender-scented living room while she poured tea with trembling hands.
“Graham told me you hated me,” I began. “He said you thought I was beneath him.”
June stared at me.
“He told me you wanted nothing to do with me. We were both lied to by the same man.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Do you remember the watercolors you used to paint?”
The question stole my breath.
Before marrying Graham, I painted boats, harbors, and coastal landscapes. I dreamed of becoming an artist, but Graham called it a childish hobby.
“A gallery owner named Leonard saw one of your paintings at a church fair,” June explained. “He wanted to include your work in an exhibition and offered you an apprenticeship.”
“I never knew.”
“I gave the letter to Graham. When he complained that the studio was 2 towns away, I offered to teach you to drive and lend you my car.”
“What did he say?”
“That you laughed at the offer and wanted to be a wife and mother, nothing more. Then he gave me a note supposedly from you, warning me to stay out of your marriage.”
“I never wrote it.”
“I know that now.”
June had tried calling and writing, but Graham intercepted her messages. When she came to our house, he threatened to end her contact with the children. After that, he allowed only occasional supervised visits and continued insisting that I despised her.
For Complete Cooking STEPS Please Head On Over To Next Page Or Open button (>) and don’t forget to SHARE with your Facebook friends.
