Chapter 4 - A Child at the Ballroom Door
By the time Piper reached the hotel, her arms were aching from carrying Wren.
They had taken a bus and then the subway.
Wren had cried twice.
Piper had almost turned around three times.
But she kept thinking about one sentence.
He is your father.
Maybe that meant something.
Maybe it didn’t.
She was about to find out.
When Piper entered the ballroom, Graham initially assumed someone’s child had wandered into the wrong event.
Then he noticed that she wasn’t looking around for her parents.
She was looking at him.
Graham stepped away from the altar.
“Can I help you?”
Piper stopped several feet away.
Her courage disappeared.
She suddenly saw how ridiculous this was.
His tuxedo probably cost more than everything in their apartment.
Everyone was staring.
Wren buried her face against Piper’s shoulder.
Then Piper forced out the only word she could manage.
“Dad?”
Graham froze.
The quartet stopped.
A murmur moved through the room.
“I’m sorry?” Graham said.
Piper’s eyes filled.
“My mom said you didn’t know.”
Graham walked closer but stopped when Piper stepped backward.
“Who’s your mother?”
Piper reached into her backpack and pulled out the photograph.
Graham saw it.
His expression changed instantly.
“Laurel?”
Piper nodded.
For several seconds, he couldn’t move.
The photograph had been taken outside a cheap apartment they had rented after college.
He remembered that day.
He remembered Laurel.
He remembered loving her.
May you like
But he didn’t remember this child.
Because he had never known she existed.
