PART 3
I stared at her in overwhelming shock.
“You knew all of this back then?”
“Not immediately at first,” Bridget explained carefully. “My late husband confessed the truth to me years after we moved to Tampa.”
“And you sat there and said absolutely nothing to me for decades?” I screamed, my voice breaking completely.
“I honestly thought you would survive a dead war hero far better than a living husband who willingly chose someone else over you,” Bridget explained, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“That was never your decision to make for my life!” I shouted.
“I know it was not, and I regret it every single day,” she wept.
“You let me spend my entire youth waiting for a ghost!” I cried.
“I kept promising myself I would tell you the truth eventually,” Bridget sobbed quietly.
“Eventually? Bridget, fifty-five whole years have passed us by!” I exclaimed furiously.
Her eyes filled with profound shame as she looked at me.
“Every year that I waited made it a thousand times harder to come clean to you. After five years passed, I had to admit to myself that I had lied to your face for five straight years. After twenty years, I had to admit that I had watched you build your entire lonely life around that massive lie.”
“And what about after fifty-five years?” I asked coldly.
She stared down at her hands in complete surrender.
“I was a complete coward, Abby.”
For once in her life, she offered no excuses and made no attempt to defend her terrible mistake. I despised what she had done to my life, but at least I finally understood the cowardice behind her actions.
Then another painful question struck me like a physical blow.
“If Connor chose Brenda half a century ago and built an entire family with her, why on earth is he standing inside my house right now?”
Bridget hesitated before reaching into her robe pocket and pulling out a piece of paper.
“I do not know every single detail about his current situation.”
She quickly scribbled a phone number on the paper and handed it to me.
“Who does this phone number belong to?” I asked, studying the handwritten digits.
“Call that number right now and ask for his eldest son,” Bridget advised firmly.
My thoughts immediately returned to the night Connor had turned his glowing mobile phone facedown on the table. He had casually dismissed the call as ‘someone from my old life up north.’ Suddenly, I understood how desperately he had tried to conceal that other life from me.
My late-night phone conversation with Connor’s adult son lasted exactly twelve revealing minutes. When I finally hung up, Bridget looked at me anxiously.
“Are you canceling the wedding tomorrow afternoon?”
“No, I am not,” I answered, my voice icy and calm.
“What on earth do you mean?” Bridget asked, stunned.
“I am definitely not canceling a single thing,” I declared firmly.
“Abby, please think about this,” Bridget urged gently.
“If Connor wants his perfect fairytale ending so badly after all these years, I am going to give him an unforgettable wedding ceremony that he will remember for the rest of his miserable life,” I replied coldly.
The following afternoon, my sunny backyard was filled with eager wedding guests seated in neat rows of white chairs. Connor looked exceptionally handsome in his dark suit, beaming as I appeared.
“You look remarkably beautiful today, sweetheart.”
“You look quite impressive yourself,” I replied with a tight smile.
Bridget stepped beside me and offered her arm to escort me down the aisle.
Connor smiled warmly when he saw my sister walking me toward the wedding altar.
“I am so deeply glad that you two sisters finally worked out your petty differences.”
“Oh, do not worry,” I replied smoothly as I reached the altar. “We are actively working on everything right now.”
The local Justice of the Peace began reciting the traditional wedding vows. Connor even wiped away genuine tears during his heartfelt, romantic promises to me.
Then it was my turn to speak.
“Do you, Abigail, take Connor to be your lawfully wedded husband?” the officiant asked clearly.
I straightened my posture and looked directly into Connor’s blue eyes.
“No, I do not.”
An absolute, deafening silence immediately swept across the entire backyard.
Connor blinked in complete confusion.
“What did you just say, Abby?”
“I said absolutely not,” I repeated loudly enough for everyone to hear.
His face flushed bright red as anger surged through him.
“Bridget got to your head again, did she not?”
“Actually, your eldest son from Ohio got to me late last night,” I revealed calmly.
Connor’s confident expression crumbled, replaced by sheer terror.
My adult nephew, seated in the front row, blurted out, “Wait a second, you have an entire secondary family?”
Keeping my eyes fixed on Connor, I continued speaking clearly.
“Brenda was never just your temporary field hospital nurse, was she?”
“Please, Abby, let us talk about this privately,” Connor begged desperately, stepping toward me.
“She was your living partner for almost fifty full years, the mother of your three grown children, and the woman you built a complete home with while I spent my youth weeping over your memory,” I stated firmly.
“You have completely twisted the whole situation out of context!” Connor protested frantically.
“You never legally married Brenda because you were technically still legally married to me in the eyes of the law,” I pointed out coldly.
Connor stood motionless and silent, unable to offer even a single denial.
“And now, suddenly, you show up out of nowhere wanting another quick wedding ceremony with me,” I continued with a bitter laugh. “It is remarkably fascinating how extremely important our old marriage contract became to you the very moment Brenda passed away six months ago.”
“That is simply not true at all, Abby!” Connor insisted loudly.
“You had three children with her and built a half-century of memories,” I reminded him.
“It is an extremely complicated situation!” Connor pleaded, sweat gathering beneath his collar.
“No, it was complicated yesterday,” I countered sharply. “Today, everything is remarkably simple.”
He stepped closer to me again.
“Please, just let me explain everything to you privately inside.”
“Why should I allow that?” I asked loudly. “You were more than happy to publicly explain my sister’s supposed betrayal to everyone in town.”
Suddenly, Bridget stepped forward and shouted at Connor.
“Why do you not tell my sister who paid off all your personal credit card debts for the last twenty years, Connor?”
He shot her a vicious, hateful glare.
I turned my full attention back to him.
“Brenda completely supported your comfortable lifestyle for decades using her inheritance. When she passed away recently, her entire estate and house went directly to your three children as outlined in her will.”
“That legal matter was heavily manipulated by her lawyers!” Connor argued defensively.
“And when your own children cut off your allowance and stopped supporting your lavish spending, you went hunting for another lonely target who might fund your retirement,” I declared with absolute disgust.
Connor stared at me in speechless shock, his deception laid bare before everyone.
I offered him a sad, pitying smile.
“That is the exact moment you remembered your naive teenage bride down in Florida.”
“That is absolutely not what happened!” Connor shouted, his voice cracking.
“Is it not?” I asked, leaning toward him slightly. “Because you seemed awfully interested in knowing whether my house was fully paid off during our quiet dinners.”
“And you were awfully eager to know about my personal legal will,” I added coldly.
“Sweetheart, please listen to me…” Connor whimpered softly.
“Do not ever call me that name again,” I snapped firmly.
Behind us, an uninvited neighbor leaned toward her friend and whispered loudly, “This dramatic wedding is genuinely better than television!”
“Shh, quiet down!” my nephew quickly hushed her. “I want to hear every single word of this!”
I held Connor’s terrified gaze without wavering.
“You did not travel all the way back to Florida because you suddenly remembered your sweet young wife, Connor. You came back here because you remembered that she owned property.”
“That is completely untrue, Abby,” Connor stammered, his hands trembling. “I truly loved you back then.”
“How deeply touching,” I replied sarcastically.
“I still love you today, we can still easily fix this minor misunderstanding,” Connor pleaded, extending his hands toward me one last time.
I studied the old man I had mourned for more than half a century. Suddenly, I could no longer see any trace of my handsome nineteen-year-old high school husband in his features. All I saw was a complete stranger wearing a familiar, weathered face.
“You were actually right about one specific thing you told me last week,” I said quietly.
Connor blinked nervously, clinging to a final thread of hope.
“What was I right about, Abby?”
“At our advanced age, we really should not waste another single second of our remaining time,” I replied calmly, lifting my arm and pointing directly toward the open driveway gate. “So please do not waste another minute standing on my property.”
Absolute silence settled over the backyard as Connor turned and slowly walked down the driveway.
Bridget quietly approached my side as the wedding guests began murmuring among themselves.
“I am so deeply sorry for everything, Abby.”
“I know you are,” I answered quietly, gazing across the yard.
“Do you think you can ever forgive me for what I did?” she asked, tears filling her eyes.
“Not today, Bridget,” I replied honestly.
“Do you think you might forgive me someday in the future?” she whispered softly.
I looked across the rows of empty white wedding chairs scattered over the green grass.
For fifty-five long years, I had faithfully waited for Connor to return to me. But I was finished waiting for anyone else to validate my existence.
I had always believed that keeping his cheap vending machine ring meant remaining loyal to my lost love. Now, at last, I understood that the only person in this world who truly deserved my complete loyalty was myself.
THE END.
