The doorbell rang again, it was the fifth time today, and the maid rushed to answer the door. The whispers of the young woman could be heard in the living room and the shutting of the door. The woman's footsteps could be heard quickly moving towards where they were sitting trying to ignore each other's existence.
"Mrs. Gilmore, there's delivery for you." Emily looked up and smiled at the maid. She reached out towards the young woman to accept that package that had just arrived. Once the package was in Emily's hands, the maid scurried away back to the kitchen preparing tonight's dinner.
Trix watched her daughter in law closely as she opened the package. She was trying to figure out what was going on and why there were so many packages being delivered. So far there have been three dozen roses—-yellow, pink, and peach—-and now this small book shaped box. Each time something was delivered, Emily smiled and blushed as she read the attached notes. The packages had to be from Richard—or she had least hoped they were from Richard or Emily had some serious explaining to do. Trix tried to make it look like she didn't care whatsoever about anything related to her daughter in law, but she was curious what was in the box.
Emily slowly opened the box and gasped, "I can't believe he remembered! After all this time..." She didn't think Emily was even conscious that Trix was still in the room. She watched as the younger woman pulled a worn leather-bound book from the box and ran her hand over the cover. "Oh, Richard. How I love you, you silly wonderful man."
It was too much! She needed to know what was going on and why this old book was so important. "Really, Emily? What are you going on about?"
Emily was startled having forgotten that she wasn't alone. She tried to regain her composer before answering, but was failing. Clearing her throat in a last ditch effort to get rid of her emotions, "Richard sent me a book that holds a lot of meaning for the two of us. We haven't been able to find another copy since the original wasn't returned to the Yale library years ago. But, it seems he was able to find a copy and gifted it to me."
Trix wanted to know more about this book and why it was so important, but she needed to be careful as to not give away how interested she was. "Why would one book be so important compared to anything else he has given to you in the past?" She watched as anger filled the redheads' eyes.
She knew Emily had a temper and she often saw anger under the surface whenever she made fun of her daughter-in-law, but this was different. This was pure rage and it was unsettling. What was it about this book that such a comment or question would send the younger woman into a rage.
"This book is important because he read it to me after I delivered our stillborn son! It was the only way he could calm me and every year on that day he could read it to me. So yes, this book is far more important to us than any other possession." Emily was breathing heavily now and Trix could see tears forming in her eyes. Emily stood up and turned towards the window to try and hide her tears from her horrid mother-in-law.
Shocked couldn't even begin to describe how Trix was feeling after hearing Emily's words. She took a calming breath, "Son? Emily you've only been pregnant..."
"Five times." It was barely audible, but Trix heard it all the same. Emily turned and looked at her and there was despair in the woman's eyes. "I've had five children, Lorelai Gilmore and I blame you for my son's death." Emily stormed out of the room before Trix could respond.
Once again, Lorelai Gilmore was left out of the loop when it came to the life of her son. She knew perfectly well why no one ever told her anything-she has never been kind to her daughter-in-law and now she has a choice when it comes to how to handle the information Emily had shared. She really was too old to be acting this way towards Emily considering the girl had been married to Richard since 1965, "This is ridiculous. I need to get upstairs and try to fix this."
Trix quickly got up from her position on the couch and made her way to the staircase. She couldn't stop herself from thinking about how she's treated Emily for the past forty years and that is what resulted in this horrible secret coming to light. "Why do I always have to make the girl miserable?" She whispered to herself as she ascended the stairs. She knew the answer without having to vocalize it —she was making the girl pay for the sins she had committed long ago when she stole Richard from Linny. Richard had never told her the full story when it came to how he met Emily and the resulting end of his childhood romance. She was sure Charles knew the full story because of how quickly he accepted Emily as a daughter. It had only made her more angry about the situation and honestly she should have taken it out on her son, not the beautiful woman that fell in love with him. But Lorelai Gilmore wasn't rational when it came to her beloved son and his future that she had planned since he was an infant.
Those plans hadn't changed much when Richard married Emily, if anything they were better because he found someone he truly adored. That didn't stop Lorelai Gilmore from tormenting the woman for nearly forty year and now this is where she's found herself—-standing outside her son and daughter-in-law's bedroom trying to figure out her next move. She leaned her head against the door enjoying the coolness against her flushed face. She had always thought daughters were harder to deal with simply because they could get pregnant, but the regret and worry that overpowered her now were what made daughters hard. A son could make you proud and continue the family name, but a daughter showed a woman her mistakes. The regret washed over Trix even more as she thought about the differences-Emily had been her daughter for decades even more so once Emily's own mother passed. "I'm a damn fool. Charles, what have I done? Why did I never listen to you?"
Taking a calming breath, Trix grabbed the door handle and opened the door. The only light came from the closet leaving the rest of the bedroom dark. She made her way into the room and stopped when she heard something hit the floor with a loud thud. The thudding continued at a maddening pace as if someone was looking for something. She stopped at the doorway of the closet and looked at the mess that Emily had made in her search. Emily was sitting on the floor with her back towards the bedroom. Before Trix could say something Emily's voice filled the silence, "I haven't looked at this box since Lorelai was fifteen. I lost the last baby a month before she told us she was pregnant with Rory." The woman's voice had a distance to it as if she wasn't talking to anyone and it made Trix's heart constrict.
Trix walked into the room and sat in the armchair in front of Emily. There was a box in Emily's lap that she hadn't opened yet. "Emily, why did you tell me? I would've…"
Emily's head snapped up and her face showed nothing but rage. "You would've blamed me for each of the children lost. Everything has always been my fault. Don't pretend that you would've treated me any differently than you have in the past 30 plus years. You've never cared about me and blamed me for Richard's decisions. You hated me the moment he told you about me. You never gave me a fucking chance so don't you dare…"
The words hurt, Trix had to admit, because they were true. She never gave Emily a chance when her son told her about the wonderful woman he had met and fell in love with. Emily's words were long overdue, "You're right. I never gave you a chance, Emily. I was enraged at my son's inability to explain why he left a perfectly good woman for another. I have spent decades trying to understand how unhappy my son was with the girl I picked for him compared to the lovely woman who walked through my door a few months after he broke off his engagement. The moment Richard introduced you, I knew he was in love. My son found what many of us in our social circle don't and he had the courage to go against his parents and fight for who he wanted." The room was silent. "You have made my son happier than I have ever seen him. I will admit that even that angered me because I had been the center of his world and then suddenly there was another woman who made him happy. I should've reined in my anger and tried to know you more. I've been foolish, Emily. I've had a daughter for decades and have treated her horribly."
Emily continued to sit on the floor clutching the unopened box on her lap. She continued to look at Trix as if she had grown another head. The rage was gone but had been replaced with a sadness that seeped into the surrounding room. Trix took another deep breath, "Emily, what did you mean that you blame me for your son's death?" Emily quickly looked down at the box and tightened her grip on it. She looked like she was ready to flee from the room at any moment. Trix had to try and calm the girl...woman, "Please tell me, Emily. I would like to know and share in your grief. I want to know about all of my grandchildren. I assume that box holds memories of your children." She pointed at the box still on Emily's lap. The woman simply nodded in response to Trix's statement.
Emily took a deep breath and opened the box; placing the box lid on the floor beside her. She shifted through the box looking for something. When she found what she was looking for, the corners of her mouth curled upward and she handed the picture to Trix. "Our first baby was a boy." was all that Emily said as Trix looked at the small picture in her hands. It was a picture of Emily holding an impossibly tiny baby.
"I was 2 months pregnant that night at dinner when we were first introduced." Trix looked up from the picture in her hand, "Richard had proposed October and we weren't careful when we celebrated. He told you that he proposed before Christmas break because he was still engaged to Pennilyn Lott when he asked me. They hadn't been together for a while by October and were both seeing other people. Neither thought about telling their parents until after each were engaged to someone else-Richard to me and Pennilyn to Stephen." Emily shrugged at the memory and continued, "We didn't want you to know I was pregnant because Richard wanted you to see that we were marrying out of love not necessity. But it didn't really matter because you hated me from the beginning. The following February, you made Richard come home for the weekend and he brought me. You were horrible. I wasn't left alone the entire time and was a nervous wreck the entire time. We ended up leaving early because I wasn't feeling well. I ended up going into labor once we got back to Yale." Emily paused and looked up at Trix. She took the picture from her and placed it back in the box, "Richard was there the entire time and helped me through it. He took this picture so we wouldn't forget our baby boy. He then called his father. Charles showed up and helped me to the hospital. Two days later, Charles took us to the cemetery where he had arranged a small ceremony for the baby. Our little boy is buried in the family mausoleum." Emily continued to look through the box while silence filled the room.
"Charles knew about the baby?" was all that Trix could verbalize about what she had just been told.
I may finish this story, but I've been working on it for awhile now. I honestly don't know if it's worth finishing. What do you think?