“We’re in love,” Ellie said, and to her credit her sister did look contrite. If Sunshine didn’t know her sister better she might have believed her. But Ellie had always wanted whatever Sunshine had, and this time it was Peter.
Peter looked down, unable to meet her gaze. “I’m sorry.”
“Do you want Ellie?” Her heart was breaking just asking the man she loved this question.
Peter remained silent.
“Answer me,” she cried out, holding back the tears that burned like sulfur. “For the love of heaven, have the decency to at least answer me.”
Apparently, Peter didn’t know.
The tears came then, and Sunshine swiped them from her face as she turned and walked away.
The next time she saw Peter and Ellie she made the decision for him. “I … I’m going to attend graduate school in California. I have an offer … I wasn’t going to accept, but it seems that would be for the best.” Remaining in Chicago and seeing him with her sister would have killed her.
“No,” Peter protested. “You have an offer here, too …”
Sunshine shook her head unwilling to even consider his plea. “Do you seriously think I could remain here with the two of you?”
“Let her go. It’s for the best,” Ellie advised, tightening her grip on Peter’s arm.
“Yes,” Sunshine agreed, as she turned away.
Three months later Sunshine was in California. She’d left without a word and shunned all contact with them. She buried herself in her studies and her painting, and after a year had a show in a well-known gallery. The first piece that sold, created in a frenzy of pain, anger, and emotion, was titled Betrayal.
The oil painting showed a loving couple walking with their arms around each other with a lamb following closely behind. On closer examination the eye would eventually see that the lamb wasn’t so lovely or innocent. Cleverly woven into the walkway were thin lines of twine wrapping around the man’s legs like vines, securing him to the lamb. In the man’s hair was another face looking back longingly at the lamb. It was the first painting she did with a picture inside a picture that told a story beyond initial impressions. If Sunshine had anything to thank her sister for, it was inspiring her to try this technique.
A few months after she landed in California, Peter wrote, but she returned his letter unopened. She didn’t speak to her sister again until her mother begged her to make peace for the sake of the family.
Six months after she was in California, Peter phoned. The only way he could have gotten her phone number was from her mother.
“You returned my letter.”
“Yes.”
“If you’d opened it, you would have learned that Ellie and I broke up. She’s dating someone else now.”
It probably wasn’t the most forgiving thing to do, but Sunshine laughed. “I didn’t need to read your letter to figure that out. The only reason Ellie wanted you was because I loved you.”
“Past tense?”
“Why are you surprised?”
“Your sister—”
“You don’t need to tell me anything about my sister that I don’t already know, Peter.”
Dead air said more than if he had shouted across the line. Finally he spoke. “I was a fool.”
“Yes.” He wouldn’t get an argument from her.
“I love you, Sunshine.”
She bit down on her lip so hard she tasted blood. “I love you, too,” she whispered, broken, “but it’s too late. I’ll never get over what you did. You might as well have stabbed me in the heart. I should have known the minute I told Ellie I wanted to marry you … ” She stopped talking. It was useless to continue, useless to relive the pain of her sister’s treachery.
“I was human,” he argued.
“Well, I’m human, too,” she returned heatedly. “You should know I’m dating someone else now.”
Her words appeared to stun him, as though he found it hard to believe she could have feelings for anyone other than him. It seemed he knew her better than she realized.
“Do you love him, too?” he asked after another tense silence.
She lied because she wanted to hurt him the same way he had hurt her. “Yes,” she said, “very much.”
He didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I see … I want you to be happy, Sunshine.”
“I am … I’m very happy.” She forced a cheerful note into her voice.
“I appreciate that you answered the phone.”
She smiled at that. Had she known he was on the other end of the line, she would never have picked up. “Sure. No problem.”
“You’re a wonderful artist, Sunshine. I have no doubt you’re going to be a huge success.”
At the time she’d been working on that first painting that caused such a sensation. “If I am,” she said coolly, “I have you and Ellie to thank. I paint with passion now, something my teachers once said I lacked.”
He didn’t comment. “Good-bye, my love.”
It was on her lips to remind him she was no longer his love, but she decided against it and silently ended the call.
A year passed before Sunshine heard anything about Peter again. A Christmas card arrived from his mother. Using a number of excuses, Sunshine refused to return to Chicago for the holidays. It was better that she remained in California, and her mother begrudgingly accepted that she was right.
At the bottom of her holiday greeting, Peter’s mother wrote a single line.
Peter is in law school.
Sunshine’s chest tightened, and for a moment she found it impossible to breathe. He would hate every minute of it. For days afterward she moped around her tiny apartment, restless, agitated, and overwhelmingly sad.
A year later Anna sent her another Christmas greeting with another line, one equally devastating to Sunshine.
Peter is engaged to the daughter of my husband’s law partner.
Sunshine never got another Christmas card from Peter’s mother after that, and frankly she was relieved. It hurt too much to know he had given up the one thing in his life that brought him joy.
The two of them were more alike than she was willing to admit, because she, too, had given up the one thing in her life that gave her joy and love. She gave up Peter.
Chapter 20
Beth
Noah Folgate waited for Beth after school on Friday afternoon. She was pleased to see he’d taken her advice and hadn’t dropped out of the music class. Neither had Bailey.
“Ms. Prudhomme?”
“Yes, Noah?” she said as she gathered books and papers off her desk. She glanced up and saw him standing just inside the room. “I wanted you to know that I’m glad you’re back.”
“Thank you. I’m glad to be back.”
“Do you remember that you asked me not to drop this class?”
“I do remember. I asked you to give it a week.”
“I did. The only reason I even signed up was because of Bailey, and then we broke up and I thought, you know, classical music wasn’t really my thing. I didn’t know Bailey had asked to drop the class, too. When we heard about your accident, Bailey and I talked and I asked her to homecoming and she cried, she was so happy. We stayed in your class and I’m glad we did. You were right. I liked learning about Mozart. He was one cool dude. I’ve learned a lot and now I …” He paused as if he was embarrassed. “I want to thank you.”
“Noah, I’m the one who should be thanking you. You made my day.”
He lowered his voice, as if he was afraid someone might be listening. “You’re a better teacher than Mr. Englehardt.”
“If you don’t mind, I won’t tell him you said so.”
Noah smiled. “Yeah, it’s probably best that you don’t.”
They walked out of the school together. Beth was almost to her car, one Sam had helped her choose, when her phone rang. Thinking it was Sam, a happy feeling came over her. On Friday afternoons he spent an hour or more with the guys from the garage and he usually didn’t phone until he was home. The number that showed wasn’t one she recognized, though.