Elly smiled. Sunny paused, and Elly saw her eyes brimming with tears. “I know what it’s like, you know, to have your husband be unfaithful. I would have given anything to look his many lovers in the face, to have that sense of finality. I wanted to give you that…even if that woman was my daughter.” She wiped her eyes with a withered hand. “If you can someday forgive me for what I have done to you….then, please…just know that I’m aware that I should never have meddled in your life, in your past. I tried to give you resolutions that I never had, living vicariously through your chance at closure. Elly, dear, I’m so sorry.” At this, Sunny bent her dignified head over the table and wept.
Elly jumped up and gave the tiny woman a fierce hug. “Sunny, look at me.” Sunny looked up, her mascara running down her cheeks. “I’m going to say this, and I need you to believe that I am not saying this for your benefit.” Elly took a labored breath and let the next words pour out of her mouth gloriously. “You hiring me for your daughter’s wedding was the best thing that ever happened to me. I won’t go into it because frankly, I’m tired of talking about it, but Aaron took my life away. I have spent the last two years trying to get over the moment that I found him in my bed with Lucia.”
Sunny covered her mouth and widened her eyes. Elly guessed she hadn’t found out about that part. “Aaron took away every ounce of confidence that I would ever be truly loved again. I never got over him, and even when a wonderful guy” – she couldn’t bring herself to call Isaac a man, not quite – “took an interest in me, I wasn’t able to fully be with him, because Aaron was still there. He was always there, lurking at the back of my heart.” Sunny nodded empathetically. “But yesterday, I saw Aaron at the wedding. I talked to him, and he begged me to come back to him.” Sunny’s mouth twitched, but Elly bravely continued. “At first, I fell into him, and had that moment that I’d been waiting all these years for. He said and did all the things that I had built up in my mind that I wanted, and I was so ready to throw this all away, just for his kiss, just to be with him again.”
“And then…”
“And then I realized…he wasn’t the man of my dreams - he was the man who took them away.” She stood up, short but proud. “I am better without him.”
Sunny let out a happy sob.
“I woke up today, and I’m free of him. Forever. I can move forward with my life, and it’s all because of you. Because you hired me to do this wedding, because you trusted me with it. And yes, because you meddled where you really shouldn’t have.” She sat down beside Sunny and took her hand. “Thank you for giving me the closure that I wasn’t strong enough to seek out myself.”
Sunny smiled, the relief etched on her face. “Oh, thank God.”
Elly frowned. “On that note, I do feel the need to tell you that Aaron is going to be a horrible husband to Lucia. He tried to get me to run away with him yesterday, on their honeymoon! Honestly, I feel nothing but pity for your daughter at this moment.”
Sunny grimaced. “I’m aware. I tried to talk Lucia out of marrying him, but she does what she wants. She always has. She is a grown woman, who makes many conscious mistakes. Perhaps it’s time for her to live with the consequences of the pain she has caused.” She paused. “I sound like an awful mother.”
“No,” Elly paused, trying to find the right words. “You’re an honest mother.”
Sunny took a deep breath. “I’m so relieved. I fully expected to be screamed at today.”
Elly nodded, adding, “I thought maybe you would slap me.”
“Oh dear, I would never slap anyone.”
“I know.” Sunny turned and looked at Elly. “You really are the most extraordinary woman I think I’ve ever met. From the moment I met you, I knew you were something special. There is no one else in the world that I would have hired.”
Elly stood, helping Sunny to her feet. “I’m glad you came clean. I really should be thanking you, though.”
Sunny turned, the picture of grace and elegance in the early afternoon light. “Please don’t. It would be more than I could bear. I hope that we can still stay in touch, Elly. Would it be alright if I stopped by every once in awhile and took you for lunch?”
Elly nodded with sincerity. “I would like that.”
Sunny opened the shop door, the bells clanking softly. “It really was the most beautiful wedding. Even if the marriage isn’t, at least I have that.”
Elly closed the door softly behind her and picked up the plant that Sunny had brought in, a small pink azalea bush with a card tied to it. Elly opened the envelope. Written in perfect calligraphy, it simply said Thank you. A check fell out onto the table. Elly picked it up with trembling fingers. Her response was so loud the neighbors heard.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE