Later that day, she called the children over and told them everything—about the heart operation, about the account, about the letter. It was shocking for them, especially because she had been carrying the burden of her heart failure alone. One of her daughters read the letter out loud and summed up its meaning perfectly: “An apology should not have to hide anywhere.”
The following week, there was an important event for Walter where he was going to receive some awards.
When Walter saw Sylvie and the children enter the ballroom, he was shocked. While making the acceptance speech and talking about how “family is the foundation of success,” Sylvie got up from the table.
There was total silence in the room.
She did not scream and did not yell at him. She only told him, “Say my name, acknowledge the woman who had done the job so that you could stand here.”
Walter stuttered, saying that he always treated her with respect. Thus, Sylvie pulled out the letter, read it aloud in front of everybody present and said, “If you knew that you owe me this, don’t stand up there and pretend that you are such a generous man.”
No one dared to breathe. Neither Walter, nor the audience, nor Marcy, the woman he had left her for. Sylvie just put away the letter, said that she would undergo an open heart surgery the following week, and left.
