DEAR YOU [Part 2]

Chapter 19

Jack

“Hi.” Emma stood in front of the house wearing a long, beige winter coat and an umbrella in her hand. She slowly took the gloves off and placed them in her handbag. “Can I come in?” she asked.

“Yeah of course.” I opened the door.

She made her way to the living room, looking around the house from the walls to the floor as if to check whether everything had really changed after the incident or it only felt like it.

“Is mom home?” she sat on the sofa and her handbag sat beside her.

“No, she has gone grocery shopping.”

“Uh, great well I wanted to give you this.” She took an envelope from her bag, it seemed fancy.  “My wedding invitation.”

Her wedding invitation? She wanted us to come to her wedding? A slight hope emerged from within, it felt a relief to see her sitting in front of me fter so long and maybe all this time apart made her realize that we can still have a relationship.

I tried to fight the smile I felt creeping up and accepted the invitation.

“Would you like to have some tea?” in order to not make a big deal out of it, I changed the topic hastily.

“Don’t come.” Her sudden reaction shattered my heart and hope in a second.

“What?”

“Don’t come to my wedding.”

“I don’t understand Paris. What is the meaning of all this?”

“I want you and mom to not come to my wedding.” She said more clearly.

“Then why did you come here all the way to give us an invitation?”
I couldn’t make sense of anything. Why go all the way out to invite us when she doesn’t want us to come.

“I am not inviting you people. This invitation is from Peter. The boy you didn’t want me marrying. The boy you think is not enough for me is inviting you, not me.” Her voice reflected coldness.

“I tried to talk him out of it but he thinks that it is important for you guys to be there. So, I thought the next best thing was to come down here and tell you to not come.”

She stood up, her arms crossed around her chest, making the wall between us perfectly visible. She picked up her bag and was ready to go out the door leaving behind broken relationships.

“Why are you doing this to us Paris? What did we ever do to you.” My firm front finally broke down and my voice had a drop of regret in it.

“Why am I doing this? Its my wedding. It is my day and I want to be happy. I don’t want you and mom, sitting in your seats and judging me by all the things I did wrong in my life while I am getting married. I need love and support and nothing else on my wedding day and since that is something you are incapable of providing then please, don’t come.” She suddenly burst, all the feelings pouring out of her with no filter whatsoever.

As much as I would try to keep my cool in these situations, the ego in me comes roaring out.

“We gave everything we had to you kids and this is what you do to us?”

“You know what we actually wanted?” she stopped and turned. “A little love from you. That’s all we ever wanted, for you to sit with us and just laugh and talk. Everything didn’t have to be a lecture or a moral lesson, we could have been a family, you could have been our dad but it is you who decided to be our father. And that is all youll be. I am inviting you out of custom but if you want me to be happy, don’t come.”

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