Lessons Learned, Healing Hearts

Beginnings of Redemption (Chapter 44)

Like a runaway train, time hadn't slowed for anything. Dancing in her kitchen to a newly released Il Volo song, Marlow smiled to herself. In a wonderful place in her life, her Speech Pathology career had taken off and feeling a pull to help other children who had been like her, she had fostered several children. Almost done with the process of adopting two siblings, seven-year-old Everett and twin sister Amelia, Marlow finally found healing from childhood wounds.

Opening the pantry door and grabbing an afternoon snack for herself, she leaned against the counter and thumbed through her notifications. Choking on the granola and chocolate chips in her mouth, she reread the notification.

"Il Volo adds the city of Vancouver to their World tour. Tickets on sale on Ticketmaster. Buy now!"

Hopping onto the Official Fanclub website, without any additional hesitation, Marlow purchased three tickets—one for her, one for Zoe and one for Harper.

It had been another three years since she had last seen them in Seattle. Wanting so much to apologize in person to Piero for hurting him, she recognized that there was a chance he wouldn't want to see her. Committing herself to find the courage to at least try, she entered the concert date into her calendar and quickly texted Piero.

"So happy to hear that you are coming to Vancouver. Can't wait. Would love to get together to reconnect?"

Getting a response back a few minutes later, it was not what she wanted to read.

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that this message was for me. My name is not Piero, and I've had this number for the past two years. Good luck in finding the right number and reconnecting with the correct Piero."

Had she punched in the wrong number? Hoping that was the case, she checked her text history. She had texted the correct number. Unfortunately for her now, there was no way to test the waters beforehand.

***

"Why are you staying in the city tonight?" Everett asked, bounding into the bedroom, quickly followed by Amelia.

Pushing her suitcase out of the way, Marlow sat with her soon-to-be adopted children.

"Aunty Zoe and Aunty Harper and I are going to go and see someone extremely special to me, and then we're going to have a girls' weekend away from all you kids."

"Is that someone special, a boy?" Amelia asked, her eyes smiling in excitement.

"What makes you think it's a boy?"

Shrugging, Amelia flashed a crooked grin. With several empty spaces and partially grown adult teeth, she was the poster child for cuteness.

"I don't know. I just think it is," she said, giggling.

Quieter than his sister, Everett was a sharp detective. Preferring to observe before making judgements, he studied people's reactions, tone of voice and mannerisms. Catching a hint of colour come to his mother's face, and an almost silent giggle escaped from her throat, he declared, "It's a boy."

Laughing, Marlow beamed at her two children.

"Yes, it's a boy. I am going to go and see the first man I think I truly loved."

"If you loved him, why didn't you marry him?" Amelia asked.

"We weren't together long enough for that to even come up."

"Why not?" Tender-hearted and always sensitive to the needs of others, Amelia touched her mother's forearm. "If you loved him and he loved you, then why did you break up?"

Marlow swallowed hard. This was good practice. If she could satisfy her kids' curiosities, maybe she stood a chance of getting Piero to see that she was genuinely sorry for how things turned out. Clearing her throat, she answered, "I was too afraid." Lowering her head, Marlow could feel her chest tighten. "It was my fault. I didn't feel like, huh..." Marlow stumbled over her words. "At that time, I didn't feel like I deserved to be loved."