Graham did not propose beneath fireworks or beside a finished bridge.
He asked Maggie over tea in a hotel lounge three days after the ceremony.
Daniel learned because Maya burst into his room without knocking.
“They’re getting remarried.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You know knocking is a thing?”
“Focus.”
He sat down.
The news felt ridiculous, moving and slightly alarming.
“Are they sure?”
“Apparently people in their sixties can make decisions without permission from their children.”
“I dispute that.”
Maggie called later.
“This isn’t about pretending the past didn’t happen,” she said.
“I know.”
“We’re not young. I’m not following him from project to project. He’s retiring from full-time overseas work after this contract.”
“Has he agreed?”
“He has if he wants to marry me.”
Daniel laughed.
That sounded like his mother.
He realised he was happy for them.
Not because the remarriage repaired his childhood.
It did not.
Because two people who had wasted enough years had chosen not to waste the rest.
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