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The Goodbye Groom. Ellen James
Читать онлайн.Название The Goodbye Groom
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Автор произведения Ellen James
Жанр Современные любовные романы
Издательство HarperCollins
No one else might see anything of great significance happening here—just a woman and a little girl playing together—but Eric did.
Jamie Williams was special and unique. She seemed to know the secret to reaching his daughter.
In fact, Jamie Williams seemed to have something that his daughter needed.
“HELLO, MOM,” JAMIE SAID, gripping her cell phone perhaps a bit too tightly. One call from her mother and all the old emotions had kicked in.
“Jamie, I knew you wouldn’t find him.” Caroline Williams almost sounded pleased—in her dire sort of way. Expecting the worst had become her specialty. Jamie’s response was to pace back and forth in her Seattle hotel room. Eric had offered to put her up another night at his island home, but she’d decided to stay in the city. She needed solitude right now, a chance to gather her thoughts.
“I told you it was a mistake to go up there. Of course, you never listen. A letter came today, Jamie. By messenger. From him.”
Jamie felt herself go rigid.
“No return address,” Caroline went on in a biting tone. “That’s just like him, isn’t it?”
Jamie tried to think of some normal, ordinary way to proceed. A letter from Shawn. The lump in her throat was so large she could hardly speak. Only with effort did she get the words out. “I suppose—if you would just forward it to me—”
“I could…if I hadn’t already opened it.”
That was typical Caroline Williams. Jamie supposed she ought to feel outrage at her mother’s high-handed behavior, but at the moment she couldn’t seem to feel anything at all. A strange numbness had enveloped her.
“I’ll read it, of course.” Caroline gave a discreet cough, as if about to deliver a speech. “‘Dear Jamie…’ Can you believe it? He leaves you at the altar and then has the gall to write you a ‘Dear Jamie’ letter.”
“Mother.”
“Yes, very well. ‘Dear Jamie… You must hate me by now. You should hate me.’” Caroline Williams made a derisive sound. “Why, how kind of him. Giving us permission to despise him—”
“Mother,” Jamie repeated. She sank down in the room’s one armchair. “Please read it all the way through—without the commentary.”
“All right.” Caroline read on. “‘What I’ve done is terrible, unconscionable. I’m sorry, Jamie, more sorry than you’ll ever know. If only… Shawn.’”
Jamie closed her eyes. She’d experienced a sense of unreality listening to Shawn’s words spoken in her mother’s disparaging tone. If only… What did he mean? If only things had been different? If only he had loved her? If only they had another chance?
“That’s it,” said Caroline. “It’s really quite masterful when you think about it. An over-the-top, extravagant apology. Gives you everything and nothing at the same time. So he takes the heat and he leaves you with nothing but coldness underneath.”
Jamie considered throwing the phone across the room.
“Does he tell us why he left?” her mother persisted. “Does he give us any explanation? No, of course not. He doesn’t want to be real. He doesn’t want to be genuine. That would mean risking too much. Instead he gives us a smoke screen of excessive repentance—”
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