Chapter 17 - Two Jackets
Marcus called immediately. "Where did that come from?"
Vanessa sounded confused. "From the bridal suite closet. I found it when I collected my things."
"Mom has her jacket here."
"Then whose is this?"
He asked Evelyn, who took one look at the picture and sat down. "June had two," she said. "She bought them together because she never wanted to be without one."
"You didn't tell me."
"It never came up."
Evelyn explained that June had kept one jacket for years and given the matching second to Evelyn before she died. On the morning of the wedding, Evelyn had brought both without thinking: one in her bag for the evening, one folded in a small box intended as a gift for Vanessa.
Marcus stared at her. "You were going to give Vanessa the other one?"
"June used to say a good jacket was for weather you couldn't predict. I thought it might be nice to share the story."
"Even after the way she talked to you?"
"Before all that. I left the box in the suite and forgot it."
Marcus told Vanessa the story. A long silence followed.
"She brought me a gift," Vanessa whispered, "and I threw hers on the floor."
"Yes."
"I thought the duplicate was proof she'd been trying to get around me."
"You keep turning her kindness into a plot against you."
"I know."
He waited, because the phrase was becoming familiar. This time she added, "I need to stop doing that whether you take me back or not."
"Then keep the jacket safe. It's her decision what happens to it."
After the call, Evelyn asked if Vanessa had opened the box. Marcus said she hadn't.
"Good," his mother said. "There's a letter inside."
May you like
"What does it say?"
Evelyn looked away, and for the first time in days her composure broke. "It says what I was too afraid to say to her face."
