The Two-Family House(89)

After several minutes, Natalie opened her eyes. She sat up straight in her chair and looked at Helen, at the woman who had given her everything and had asked for nothing in return. She could not chastise her for her choices. She would not condemn or find fault. Her mother had lost a son and a husband. She had lost a best friend. Natalie would not make her suffer the loss of a daughter as well. “Please don’t ever say you’re not my mother,” Natalie whispered. “You will always be my mother and Teddy’s mother too. No one ever loved either of us more than you.”

Helen stared at Natalie, eyes wide with disbelief. She had never expected to be forgiven. “It’s going to be all right,” Natalie said, in a voice so authoritative she did not recognize it as her own. Her energy was renewed, her mind overflowed with plans for how to proceed. “I have to tell Johnny right away,” she said. “I don’t want to keep any secrets from him.”

“Of course,” Helen agreed. “He’s going to be your husband.”

“I think we should tell Uncle Sol and Arlene too so they won’t worry about Johnny and me being together.”

Again, Helen nodded in agreement.

“But all the others … I don’t think anyone else should know. It would be too painful, too confusing for all of them.”

“Not even Mort?” Helen asked.

There was no hesitation when Natalie answered. “No. He’s at peace with his life now. I don’t want to ruin that for him.”

“I think you’re right.”

Natalie hugged her mother then, folding Helen into her arms the way her father had so many years ago. When Helen lifted her head, Natalie could see the toll that keeping the secret had taken. The invisible veil that had shrouded her mother’s face every day since her birth was finally lifted. For the first time in her life, Helen spoke her greatest regret out loud. “If I hadn’t done this … if I had kept Teddy, he might not have had the accident. He might still be alive, here now, with us.”

“No.” Natalie spoke with gentle sureness. “You can’t think that way.” She brushed her mother’s face with her open palm and held her hand against the softness of her mother’s cheek. “It wouldn’t have mattered which house Teddy lived in, he would have bent down for his comic just the same. I knew him better than anyone. I was there.”

“Do you really think so?”

“Yes.” Natalie’s lower lip trembled and her voice became a whisper. “You couldn’t have saved him. But you did save me.”





Chapter 71





ROSE


Helen had sent Rose a brief letter along with the clipping from the local newspaper announcing Natalie and Johnny’s engagement. She wanted Rose to know she had told Natalie the truth. When Rose finished reading, an unexpected feeling of relief washed over her. The photograph that accompanied the clipping showed a jubilant young woman with a life full of promise.

When she finished Helen’s letter, Rose sat down at Faye’s old desk to write a reply. Her writing was shaky, and a few tears stained the page. She wrote that she was sorry about Abe, that she would always remember him as kind and forgiving. She wrote that Natalie and Johnny made a lovely couple and that she wished them a long, happy life together. Before she finished the letter, Rose slid open the left-hand drawer of the desk. There, in the back, was a jewelry box containing the diamond earrings that Faye had left to Natalie in her will so many years before, the earrings that Rose had never been able to bring herself to send. Tomorrow, she would go to the post office and mail them with the letter. They would look perfect with a wedding dress, Rose wrote to Helen, and she hoped that Natalie would enjoy them.





Epilogue

(June 1970)

Whenever Johnny tried to cut a name from the guest list, his parents added two in its place. “I’ll get a bigger tent,” Sol insisted.

“They’ve known you since you were a baby,” Arlene gushed.

Eventually, Johnny gave up any hope of having a small wedding. Natalie was so grateful for the family’s support that she couldn’t care less who was invited. “Your mom can ask the whole neighborhood,” she told Johnny. “As long as we’re together, who cares?”

Natalie had been particularly worried about telling Mort. She knew Mort and Sol hadn’t always gotten along over the years, and she was afraid Mort would disapprove of the marriage as a result. It turned out Johnny and Mort had more in common than she knew. All those years of listening to his father talk about the odds he’d pay on horses, and the interest his late-paying customers owed, had rubbed off on Johnny. He had a combined appreciation for numbers and sports, and he knew the stats for more baseball players than Mort. The fact that he wasn’t going to work for Sol helped too. “I like him,” Mort admitted.

“That’s a relief,” Natalie replied. “Because I want you and my mother to walk me down the aisle together at the wedding.”

Mort was speechless. He never imagined Natalie would include him in her ceremony in such a significant way. His experience at Mimi’s wedding had left him feeling out of place and unwelcome, and Dinah had eloped. “I would be honored,” he told her.

Natalie was sitting in his office when she told him, in the extra chair she had made him leave against the wall during her first visit, all those years ago. “Your father would be very proud of you,” he said. “I hope you know that.”