that?”
“No. But I’m not sure I would’ve picked up on it. Do seven-year-olds understand what fertility means? I just remember how excited I was when my mother told me I was going to be a big sister. I’d asked Santa Claus for a baby sister for two years in a row, so I thought he was finally answering my request.” She chuckled as she shook her head, obviously lost in the memory. “You can imagine how grateful I was when I learned I was getting two sisters and not just one. I thought he was making up for being late.”
Resentment hit Lorelei like a sledgehammer. She’d begged Santa for a mother—something she never got. She’d never been given many presents, either, but she wasn’t upset about that. She was grateful for the few she had received. No one was technically obligated to provide her with a Christmas.
“How many more years was it before Beau came along?” Reagan asked.
Lorelei could’ve answered that question, too, but she didn’t. She was still grappling with the way Serenity’s story was making her feel.
“Four.”
“So you would’ve been eleven,” Reagan mused. “Old enough to understand a bit more.”
“I guess, but, again, I only remember being excited. Especially when the ultrasound revealed it was a boy.” Serenity pulled back her hair, twisted it into a knot at her nape and then let it fall free again. “I had my two sisters—I was eager for a little brother.”
“And of course you got him,” Lorelei piped up. “You got everything you wanted.”
Reagan and Serenity stared at her in surprise. “What are you talking about?” Reagan asked.
A warning light started to flash in Lorelei’s head. She needed to reel in her emotions. She didn’t lose her composure very often, and when she did, she almost always regretted it. But she didn’t seem to have any reserves to draw from. This conversation was churning up too many hurtful memories. “I guess it’s hard for me to feel a lot of sympathy for Serenity when I would’ve given anything to have it even half as good.”
Serenity rocked back as though she’d been slapped. To her, this had to be coming out of nowhere. But it was Reagan who rallied first.
“She hasn’t had a perfect life, Lorelei. Her husband just went to prison, for God’s sake. Not only did Serenity have to turn him in, she had to testify against him.”
There was an edge to Reagan’s voice, telling her that she needed to stop, but that only pushed Lorelei further down the path she was already on. “So?” she cried. “At least she was an adult when she went through that. At least she had her family to offer support. She also had a viable career to fall back on.”
Lorelei hated the things she was saying, and she hated herself for saying them. Serenity had done nothing to deserve this. But once she started to speak, the harsh words seemed to come out almost involuntarily. “And he only got five years,” she couldn’t keep herself from continuing. “Which means he couldn’t have done anything too terrible. With good behavior, he’ll be out in two. She’s said so herself.”
Serenity’s face had grown mottled and her lips were tightly compressed. “He deserves a lot more than he got.”
“Why? Because he dared to disrupt your beautiful life?”
The chair squealed against the floor as Serenity shoved away from the table and stood. “Disrupt it?”
Reagan tried, once again, to intervene, but Serenity didn’t so much as look at her and neither did Lorelei.
“Yes! God knows you wouldn’t have expected a shocker like marrying a crook,” Lorelei said. “What’d he do? Embezzle from the firm where he worked? And did that humiliate and embarrass you?” She’d tried to look it up online but hadn’t been able to find anything. The fact that it wasn’t even reported in the news supported what she was saying.
“What he did is none of our business.” Reagan stood, too, spreading her hands out as if that might stop the argument. She was still trying to act as mediator, but no one was listening to her anymore. Serenity had been pushed too far. Lorelei could