Chapter 15 - Claire Returns to Lake Geneva
Ten years after the failed wedding, I returned to the Lake Geneva
estate.
It was now a hotel.
The ballroom had been renovated.
The balcony remained.
The boys were fifteen.
Jonathan had invited me because Liam’s school charity was holding an
event there.
I almost declined.
Then I realized the building had no power over me.
I arrived in a black dress.
No convoy.
No couture entrance.
No need.
Jonathan met me near the old staircase.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
He smiled.
“You used to terrify everyone in this room.”
“I arrived with three kindergarteners.”
“Exactly.”
We had never remarried.
We had never resumed our old relationship.
But we had become good co-parents.
Friends, eventually.
Jonathan dated.
So did I.
The boys had two parents who could sit at the same table without
pretending the past had not happened.
That was worth more than a dramatic reunion.
Eleanor attended the event too.
She and the boys had a cautious relationship.
They called her Grandma Eleanor now.
May you like
Not because she demanded the title.
Because over years, she earned enough trust for them to choose it.
