Mrs. Miracle Page 0,45

hesitated, as if he instinctively knew the importance of what she was about to tell him. "I remember," he said.

She drew in a deep breath, anticipating the pain the story was sure to bring. "Four years ago...the same year Pamela died, I was engaged to an architectural student by the name of John Goddard. We'd met in college and fallen deeply in love. We planned our wedding; every detail was of the utmost importance. My older sister, Vicki, was to be my maid of honor. I've never spent a more wonderful summer. I'd graduated from college with a business degree, and was in love and about to be married. Then..." The sudden knot that tightened her throat made it impossible to continue.

"Reba?"

The gentle concern in his voice nearly undid her, and she struggled to hold back the emotion. "Vicki was jealous...I knew it, saw it. We'd always been competitive, but for the first time in our lives I had something she wanted. You see, she was always the one who blazed new territory. Grades, sports, and just about everything else. It was important to her to outdo me, to be first. Yet I was the one who was engaged, I was to be the first one married.

"She didn't love John, but she flirted with him, teased him, and asked him if he was sure he was marrying the right sister. I laughed it off. What else could I do but laugh?"

"What happened?" Seth asked with tender concern.

She braced herself and between gritted teeth said the words. Each one fell from her lips as hard as concrete. As hard and as unbending. "A week before the wedding I found my sister in bed with my fiance. I'm convinced she planned it that way, that she wanted me to find them. She wanted to show me that she could have anything that was mine. Anything, including my soon-to-be husband." There couldn't be any other explanation. But Vicki's victory had turned out to be a shallow one. Reba recognized that the moment she saw her sister and the sick regret in her eyes. The remorse and honest grief.

"You broke off the engagement?" Seth asked, again with cautious tenderness, recognizing what it had cost her to peel back the wounds of the past.

"I canceled the wedding that very day, and I haven't spoken to my sister since." She tensed, waiting for him to tell her how foolish she was being, that by refusing to forgive her sister, she was only hurting herself. Well-meaning friends had said it before, and it was a theme her mother sang at every opportunity. No one understood that what Vicki had done was unforgivable.

"The ironic part of it is that my sister's married now to another man and has a child. The adored, lone grandchild." Hiding her bitterness was an impossible task. That her sister should find happiness while she lived alone rankled every time she allowed her mind to dwell on it.

"In other words, your sister came away from all this smelling like a rose."

Her eyes flew open. Seth knew. Seth understood. "Yes," she whispered, grateful that he appreciated the irony of her situation.

"Meanwhile you broke off the wedding at the last minute and everyone was left to speculate what had happened. That speculation made it seem that the fault was with you. You were fickle, didn't know what you wanted, were afraid of commitment, that sort of thing. You were the one who bore the shame."

"Yes." She had to restrain herself to keep from shouting. The days and weeks following the canceled wedding were a nightmarish blur in her mind. In order to save himself from embarrassment, John had told their friends a story that didn't vaguely resemble the truth.

In an effort to escape the probing questions and the curious stares, Reba had escaped to the beach, telling no one where she was. When she'd returned she'd invested her time and energy in establishing her travel agency. Some claimed that her success in the highly competitive travel industry was phenomenal. She wouldn't discount her efforts or the long hours she'd invested, but the drive, the urge to succeed, could be credited to John and Vicki's treachery and her need to escape the memory of their betrayal.

"Aren't you going to tell me how foolish I am to leave this matter between my sister and me unresolved?" Reba challenged. Eventually Seth would comment on it, and she'd rather have it out in the open. "People say leaving the matter