“She wanted to. Many times.”
“Then why didn’t she?”
“Because of what happened when she tried to protect your work.”
Grandma explained that my father had confronted Nora after the settlement.
He blamed her for the failure of his venture.
He warned her that if she ever approached me, he would make sure I believed she had taken my research.
Nora knew how strained my relationship with my father already was.
She was afraid that revealing everything would pull me back into a conflict I had worked so hard to escape.
So she kept her distance.
Three years later, we met by chance in a bookstore.
I had no idea who she was.
She knew exactly who I was.
I remembered the afternoon.
She had been standing beside a display of engineering books.
I reached for the same book she did.
We laughed.
I asked if she wanted coffee.
