The Reunion Read Online Free PDF

anticipation.
    “On Ethan’s twenty-fourth birthday,” Ebony began, “we went for a walk to the Stillwater. That’s when it happened.”
    “What happened?” Rebecca whispered. “What did he do?”
    “He asked me to marry him.”
    “What!” Rebecca cried, straightening up in the chair.
    “He asked me to marry him.”
    “Did you say yes? Did you love him?”
    “I loved him, or thought I loved him, so I accepted. Since he asked me to marry him on his birthday, I thought it would be fitting if we married on my birthday. Since I was born at seven in the evening, I thought it would be so romantic if we took our vows at exactly seven o’clock, as if my wedding would be a rebirth into a second life. It sounds so corny now, but at the time, it seemed poetic. The wedding was supposed to be at St. Joseph’s Church.”
    “The church across from the store?”
    Ebony nodded. “That was supposed to be the best day of my life. Instead, it was the worst.”
    “Why did you break it off?”
    “I was so excited in the weeks leading up to it,” Ebony said with a cold expression. “We had sent out hundreds of invitations, and everyone from the local communities was invited to the reception at the White’s Lake Legion.” She swallowed hard and choked back her tears. “One week before the wedding, I found a note slipped under my door.”
    Ebony abruptly pushed back the chair, stood up, and walked into her bedroom. She opened the lock of an old hope chest and took out a white envelope, a yellow ribbon tied around it. She came back to the kitchen, untied the ribbon, removed a piece of paper, and passed it to Rebecca.
    Rebecca unfolded it and read the typed note. “‘I’m leaving, and I don’t know if I’ll ever come back. Ethan.’”
    “Today is the fifth anniversary of what was supposed to be our wedding day,” Ebony said, rubbing her forehead. “Happy birthday and happy anniversary, Ebony.”
    Rebecca touched her shoulder. “This is crazy,” she said.
    “Of all the days in the year, he chose to return on this one, the anniversary of our wedding that never was. His timing was a little off,” she said sarcastically. “He showed up five years too late.” She burst into tears. “What a nightmare!”
    “It’ll all work out,” Rebecca said in a calm voice.
    Ebony shook her head. “Can you imagine anything worse for a woman than to be deserted just before the wedding? Do you know how humiliated I was? Do you know how many people gave me pitying looks and whispered behind my back? Can you even imagine it? I carry that cross with me every day and everywhere I go. Every day, Rebecca. Every minute of every day.”
    Rebecca shuffled closer and held her hand. Ebony shivered and wept, the warm tears streaming down her cheeks. She tried to talk, but the words died in her sobs. Rebecca cried, too. She stroked Ebony’s hand and held her cheek to Ebony’s forehead. She seemed to search for words to make everything right, but what could she do? No amount of comforting would ease the pain.
    “You’re coming back with me!” Rebecca insisted, standing up.
    “No!”
    “You can’t stay here alone. You need to be around others. Come with me.”
    “No!” Ebony exclaimed. “I can’t stay there tonight!”
    “Why not?”
    “I can’t sleep in his bed.”
    “I’ll stay here then.”
    “No, you should be with Ron.”
    “I can’t just leave you.”
    Ebony looked her in the eye. “Thank you for caring, Rebecca, but tonight I need to be by myself.”
    “I don’t know about that. You’re upset.”
    “Ethan Harrington is in my past. I made a mistake, that’s all. He was too wild for me anyway. It wouldn’t have worked.”
    “You don’t care that he has come back?” Rebecca probed. “It means nothing to you?”
    “That’s right. It was just the shock of seeing him so unexpectedly.”
    “You must have really loved him,” Rebecca observed, “to forgive him so easily.”
    “I will never forgive him!” Ebony