Chapter 7: A Meeting in the Rain

Freddie chose a quiet café near the city center for his meeting with Laura.

He arrived twenty minutes early and took a table beside the window. Rain had begun to fall, blurring the traffic outside. He watched people hurry past with bags over their heads and umbrellas held low.

He had imagined seeing Laura again many times. In some versions, she was angry. In others, she was relieved. He had even imagined her telling him she had never stopped loving him.

Now that the meeting was real, he could barely think of what to say.

The bell above the café door rang.

Laura stepped inside.

She looked older, of course. Her hair was shorter, and she wore a simple grey coat. But Freddie recognized her immediately. She paused when she saw him, then walked over.

“Hello, Freddie.”

He stood. “Laura.”

They didn’t hug.

Laura sat down and placed her bag beside her chair. Freddie called for two coffees, but she shook her head.

“Just water, please.”

He waited until the waiter left.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet me,” he said.

“I’m not here to make things easy for you.”

“I understand.”

“Do you?” Laura’s voice was controlled, but he could hear the hurt beneath it. “Because I spent a long time thinking you didn’t care what happened to me.”

Freddie looked down. “I’m sorry.”

“You said that in your email.”

“I know. I don’t expect it to fix anything.”

Laura looked toward the rain-covered window. “Why did you contact me?”

“Because Betty received your message. I need to know what happened.”

Laura’s eyes returned to him. “You need to know, or you need me to tell you that your mother was right?”

Freddie flinched.

“I don’t believe everything she told me anymore.”

“That’s a start.”

He took a breath. “Did my mother threaten you?”

Laura’s fingers tightened around her glass.

“She came to my apartment.”

Freddie felt his stomach drop. “When?”

“About two weeks before I left.”

“What did she say?”

“She told me you were already under too much pressure. She said your family had expectations for you, and I was making things difficult. She said I was distracting you from your future.”

Freddie shook his head. “That doesn’t sound like her.”

Laura gave a sad smile. “You still want to defend her.”

“I’m trying to understand.”

“She told me that if I truly loved you, I would leave you alone. She said you would recover from losing me, but you would never forgive yourself if you disappointed your family.”

Freddie stared at the table.

Laura continued, “I told her I wouldn’t leave just because she asked me to. Then she showed me something.”

“What?”

“A letter.”

Freddie looked up.

“She said it was from you. It said you wanted to end the relationship, but you were too afraid to tell me.”

“That’s impossible. I never wrote a letter.”

“I know that now.”

Freddie’s hands began to shake. “Why didn’t you ask me?”

“I tried. I called you. You answered once, and you were angry. You said your mother had told you I was trying to use you.”

He remembered the call. He remembered the way Laura had cried, and the way he had refused to listen.

“I’m sorry,” he said again.

Laura’s expression softened, but only slightly. “I wanted to believe you would come looking for me. I waited for a long time.”

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“I was ashamed. I thought I had misunderstood everything. Then I moved away and tried to start over.”

Freddie sat back, unable to find the right words.

He had spent years grieving a woman who, as far as he knew, had simply abandoned him. He had never imagined she had been made to believe he wanted her gone.

“Do you still have the letter?” he asked.

Laura opened her bag and removed a folded sheet of paper.

“I kept it.”

Freddie took it carefully.

The handwriting was not his.

He read the first line and felt cold spread through him.

Laura, I can no longer continue this relationship.

He looked at Laura. “I didn’t write this.”

“I know.”

“Did you ever find out who did?”

“No. But your mother was the only person who had a reason to make me believe you wanted me gone.”

Freddie folded the letter and placed it on the table.

“I need to speak to her.”

Laura stood. “That’s your decision. But don’t ask me to be part of your family again.”

“I won’t.”

She picked up her bag. At the door, she turned back.

“Freddie, I hope Betty is treated better than I was.”

He could only nod.

Betty was waiting at her apartment when Freddie returned.

She had prepared dinner, but the food had gone cold. When he walked in, she saw the look on his face and stood immediately.

“What happened?”

Freddie placed the folded letter on the table.

“Laura told me everything.”

Betty listened as he explained how Moms had visited Laura, shown her a letter, and convinced her that Freddie wanted to end the relationship. He told Betty about the calls he had ignored and the years he had spent believing Laura had abandoned him.

When he finished, Betty sat quietly.

“Do you believe Laura?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Then what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to ask my mother why she did it.”

Betty looked at the letter. “Freddie, I know you love her. But if she did this, you need to be prepared to hear something you don’t want to hear.”

He sat beside her. “I don’t know how to face her.”

“You don’t have to stop loving your mother to tell her she was wrong.”

Freddie rested his forehead against Betty’s shoulder. She held him while he struggled to make sense of the past.

After a while, he lifted his head.

“I want to marry you,” he said. “I don’t want my mother’s choices to decide our future.”

Betty touched his cheek. “Then we’ll make our own choices.”

He kissed her, and she kissed him back. But the letter remained on the table between them, a reminder that their problems had begun long before Betty entered Freddie’s life.

At the mansion, Moms was waiting in the sitting room.

She had heard from Cynthia that Freddie met Laura. She knew he would come to her soon, and she had spent the day preparing what she would say.

When Freddie entered, she rose from her chair.

“Where have you been?”

“Meeting Laura.”

Moms’s face tightened. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to know what happened.”

“You should not have contacted her.”

“Did you go to her apartment?”

Moms said nothing.

Freddie took the letter from his pocket and held it out.

“Did you give her this?”

Moms looked at the paper. Her expression changed, and for a moment she seemed unable to speak.

“Freddie,” she began, “I was trying to protect you.”

He stared at her.

“Did you write this letter?”

Moms looked away.

Freddie’s voice dropped. “Tell me the truth.”

She gripped the back of the chair.

“I did what I thought was best.”

He stepped back as if she had struck him.

“You made her believe I wanted her gone.”

“I knew she wasn’t right for you.”

“You had no right!”

Moms flinched at his raised voice.

“I am your mother,” she said. “I was trying to keep you from making a mistake.”

Freddie looked at her, and the hurt in his eyes seemed to frighten her more than his anger.

“You didn’t protect me, Mom. You lied to me.”

He turned toward the door.

“Freddie, wait.”

He stopped but did not turn around.

Moms’s voice broke. “Please. Don’t leave me.”

For a moment, he stood still.

Then he said, “I need time.”

He walked out.

Moms sank into the chair, staring at the letter he had left behind.

Her phone rang.

She answered without checking the screen.

“Hello?”

A man’s voice came through, low and familiar.

“Moms. It’s been a long time.”

She went completely still.

“Where is Freddie?” he asked.

Moms’s hand tightened around the phone.

The voice she had spent years trying to forget had finally returned.