I turned to find my son approaching with Vivien at his side, both looking like they’d just witnessed a natural disaster. Vivien’s wedding glow had been replaced by thinly veiled alarm, while Brandon’s face had gone from pale to flushed.
“Brandon,” I said pleasantly, not releasing Theo’s arm. “Shouldn’t you be greeting your other guests? I believe the receiving line is forming.”
“Who is this man?” Vivien demanded, her voice pitched low but sharp enough to cut glass.
Theo stepped forward with the easy confidence of someone accustomed to being in control of any situation. “Theodore Blackwood. I apologize for not introducing myself sooner, but I was rather caught up in the pleasure of seeing Eleanor again after so many years apart.”
He extended his hand to Brandon, who shook it automatically, his lawyer training making the social niceties reflexive even while his mind was clearly racing.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Blackwood, but I don’t believe my mother has mentioned you,” Brandon said, his voice taking on the careful neutrality he used in court when fishing for information.
“Hasn’t she?” Theo’s eyebrows rose in mock surprise. “How interesting. Eleanor and I have quite a history together. Quite a significant history, in fact.”
The casual way he said it, the intimacy implied in his tone, made Vivien’s eyes narrow dangerously. I could practically see her mental calculator working, trying to assess what this relationship meant and how it might affect her carefully constructed social standing.
“What kind of history?” Brandon asked, his voice edged with that prosecutorial tone he used when cross-examining hostile witnesses.
“The kind that matters most,” Theo replied smoothly. “Your mother and I were very serious once upon a time, before she met your father. We had plans, dreams, a whole future mapped out together.”
The admission hung in the air like an unexploded bomb. I watched my son process this information, saw the exact moment when he began to understand that his mother had existed as a complete person with her own loves and losses and life story that had nothing to do with his existence.
“How serious?” Vivien’s question came out more as a hiss than actual words.
“Serious enough that I’ve spent the past fifty years regretting the circumstances that separated us,” Theo said, his eyes finding mine with an intensity that made my heart skip. “Serious enough that when I saw the wedding announcement in the paper, I knew I couldn’t let this opportunity pass without seeing Eleanor one more time.”
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