Chapter 52

“What happened after?”

“I never saw him again. I looked for him for days, but never found him. Here I was, my rent due in a week, and no Renaud in sight. Then, one afternoon, a mutual acquaintance of ours told me he’d left Paris for Germany. Rumor was, Renaud had forsaken all of his father’s money and fled to Berlin.”

“Alone?”

“No one knew. My time in Paris was up and I had nothing to show for it but a broken heart and a smashed-up ego. Anyway, years later, after Jude was born, I looked Renaud up.”

“And?”

“He’s a political science professor and an advocate for gay youth rights. When I saw his picture, I couldn’t believe it. He’s a man now. A great man at that.”

“You never wrote him or tried to make contact?”

“Why would I? No, I broke what we had, and you can’t put a shattered thing back together again. When I came back to Montreal, the first thing I wanted to do was call Eileen and forget what I’d done, who I’dbecome.”

“She knows about all this?”