Chapter 16 - The Dinner Invitation
Eric had not entered Seabriar in fourteen months.
Then Sophie asked for him to come to her thirteenth-birthday dinner.
Laura looked immediately uncomfortable.
Margaret asked only one question.
“Is that what you want?”
Sophie nodded.
“Yes.”
Margaret thought for two days.
Not because she feared Eric would claim the house.
That chapter was closed.
Because Seabriar was also Margaret’s home.
She did not owe access to anyone.
But Sophie’s birthday mattered.
Margaret called Eric.
“You may come.”
He was silent.
“Thank you.”
“There are conditions.”
“Of course.”
“No business talk.”
“Agreed.”
“No inheritance jokes.”
“Agreed.”
“No discussion of the divorce.”
“Agreed.”
“And Eric?”
“Yes?”
“If you call Seabriar ‘just a house,’ I will personally escort you to the driveway.”
He laughed.
“Understood.”
The birthday dinner was deliberately casual.
Pizza.
Salad.
A chocolate cake Sophie chose herself.
No formal china.
No cream tablecloth.
Eric arrived carrying a wrapped gift and flowers for Margaret.
She looked at the flowers.
He immediately said, “Not an apology transaction.”
Margaret almost smiled.
“Good.”
She accepted them.
Dinner began awkwardly.
Sophie solved that by telling a story about a teacher accidentally projecting her shopping list in class.
Everyone laughed.
Even Margaret.
Then Eric looked toward the ocean.
“I forgot how beautiful it is.”
Margaret felt her body tense.
He noticed.
“No agenda.”
She nodded.
“Good.”
After dinner, Sophie opened gifts.
Eric had given her a camera.
Laura gave her concert tickets.
Margaret gave her a box of Henry’s old drafting pencils and a new sketchbook.
Sophie stared.
“Grandpa’s?”
“Yes.”
“Can I use them?”
“That is why pencils exist.”
Sophie hugged Margaret.
Across the room, Eric looked away.
Later, while Sophie and Laura carried cake into the kitchen, Eric approached Margaret.
“I paid the last Shoreline Crown settlement.”
Margaret nodded.
“Good.”
“Harbor Point closed.”
“I heard.”
“I work for someone else now.”
“How terrible.”
He smiled.
“I actually like it.”
“Less impressive?”
“Much.”
“Less terrifying?”
“Also much.”
Margaret believed him.
He continued.
“I wanted to tell you I understand why you didn’t pay my debts.”
Margaret almost laughed.
“That realization took fourteen months?”
“Longer.”
He looked toward Sophie.
“If you had rescued me, I think I’d still be doing it.”
“Probably.”
Eric nodded.
“I hated you for a while.”
“I assumed.”
“You seemed so calm while everything I built collapsed.”
Margaret’s expression changed.
“I wasn’t calm.”
“No?”
“I cried in the shower for three months because I thought my daughter hated me.”
Eric stared.
Margaret continued.
“I woke at two in the morning wondering whether I had destroyed Sophie’s family.”
“You didn’t.”
“I know that now.”
Eric looked ashamed.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know.”
This apology felt different.
No request attached.
No folder.
No condition.
Margaret accepted the flowers more fully in retrospect.
Sophie ran back into the room.
“Picture!”
She set up her new camera on a timer.
“Everybody.”
Laura hesitated.
Margaret did too.
Sophie rolled her eyes.
“It’s my birthday.”
They stood together.
Margaret.
Laura.
Sophie.
Eric.
Not restored.
Not erased.
A family in a different shape.
The camera flashed.
After Eric left, Laura found Margaret looking at the image.
“You okay?”
“Yes.”
“Really?”
Margaret nodded.
“He is not coming back into my life the way he was.”
“I know.”
“But I can stand in a photograph.”
Laura smiled.
“Very generous.”
“Do not push it.”
They laughed.
Then Laura grew serious.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For not making Sophie choose who she’s allowed to love.”
Margaret looked at her daughter.
“That was never mine to decide.”
Laura’s eyes filled.
It might have taken all of them years to learn that sentence.
May you like
But they had learned it.
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