It was 1 year and 3 months, later - after all the events previously described.
It was the day that I and Karen were finally getting married. My beautiful little Princess, Jules, now 13 years old, was Karen's Maid of Honor, two of Karen's oldest girlfriends and Tammy rounded it out.
Ross was my best man, of course, then Will, Rich, and Jimmy, one of my own best friends from my high school and college days that I still stayed in touch with - though he now lived in Atlanta.
Elaine attended in the front row with her own new man and "unofficial fiance", Dr. Kenneth Williams, and she held our new baby Robert Jones Parker (mine and Karen's - not Elaine's) and rocked him gently as we all hoped the little devil would stay quiet enough for his parents to "do the right thing." If not - well, he came first and he knew it! Somehow Elaine had fought off my Mom, Karen's Mom, and even her own mother to hold the new baby. Well, I always knew Elaine was tough and smart and could generally get what she really wanted. It was in deciding what she really wanted she sometimes screwed up, like most of us.
There was a fairly plentiful supply of Karen's breast milk already pumped - but it was still possible she would have to rush out and breastfeed him even more at some point during the festivities. Karen looked absolutely beautiful in her stunning white formal gown - and her green eyes glowed with her not so subtle hints of rather untraditional underwear she might also be wearing. She had physically recovered very, very nicely from Rob's birth just 3 months before. And we were now back into a honeymoon period of sex - "hysterical bonding" after about a month of careful celibacy surrounding Rob's delivery. He made it all abso-fucking-lutely worth it.
Julia loved her new baby brother. She also really, really like Karen (obviously) but she and Karen both knew Elaine was her mother and always would be. Perhaps I had once made things a little too needlessly complicated in living in Elaine's house so long just for Jules - after Elaine and I both knew my heart was with Karen. But after I did finally move out - Jules just said to me once, "Thanks, Dad - for living with me and Mom as long as you did. It was a confusing and scary time but Mom was actually nicer just to be around all during that period - and I never doubted for an instance both you and Mom really did love me and that would never change - and that you and Mom still loved each other, but perhaps more like a brother and sister love that would last forever as well. After I realized that, I knew I could handle you moving away, if that's what you had to do."
It made me cry. She was SUCH a smart and nice kid - and she was growing up to be just as beautiful as her mother. It wasn't her fault her Mom and Dad weren't perfect. But her own mercy and forgiveness for our sins and imperfections was one of the greatest blessings in my own life.
Perhaps more than the "sins of the father" ruining his children's and grandchildren's lives, one good child easily breaks that chain and her own grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness transcends us all. In fact, that's exactly what even those old Jews wrote once, in the Old Testament.
We didn't go to any Church ourselves, but Will, actually, recommended the Anglican Priest who did our vows. We incorporated the "love verse", 1st Corinthians 13 in our own vows. I HAD heard the words many times before when attending previous weddings throughout my life, but never really listened - "just boringgg" I would think. But this time I really, really thought about them. Much more than Karen. She didn't need too. They were always in Karen's heart anyway, from before I ever met her - and she lived it without thinking. Not me, I had to fumble and stumble and just always try. And I was doing my best.
Will...I really had to plead with Will to stand up with me in my wedding. He was actually shy and mumbled something like "I'm just a background kind of guy" and he actually blushed a little. But I really liked him and I owed him. He helped me with some of my own demons.
About a week after that anonymous email and porn video event, Will stepped back into my office and shut the door.
"Hi, Will - what's happening?" I asked.
"It's that private shit we talked about last week..."
"Oh?" and I got serious.
"Uh, I've done quite a bit of investigating and found out quite a bit more. These guys ARE your basic idiot types...I want to ask you a big favor."
"Sure, Will - whatever."
"OK - I want you to forget all this. Put it out of your mind, totally. Forget we even talked last week about it. In fact, destroy all your own evidence about it all, totally. Wash your hands of the whole mess, because you are a better man. Period."
"But, I'm not - and it will sort itself out. Karma is a bitch - and real. That's it. OK?"
It's a hard thing to put an emotion like "hate" - justified hate and dreams of basically hands-on revenge - away. It really is. I had held on to my hate and disgust for Elaine too long and just luckily was able to get past that. But this???
He was reading my face and I think he understood my thinking.
"OK, Will - consider it done. And thank you. I trust you. Period."