Peter knocked on the doorframe behind him, beaming, all big-brother energy in his charcoal tux.
“There’s my baby sister. You ready to do this thing?”
“I’m ready.”
He stepped in and hugged me tight, and over his shoulder I watched Evan watch him. A look passed between them, quick, almost playful, like a private joke I wasn’t in on.
He kissed my cheek and offered his arm, and I took it.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Peter said, pulling back. “I was just telling Evan this morning. Eight months ago, you couldn’t get out of bed. Look at you now.”
“You picked a good one for me, big brother.”
“I always do.”
He kissed my cheek and offered his arm, and I took it.
The music started. The doors opened. Two hundred faces turned toward me, and I walked down the aisle on my brother’s arm, certain, finally certain, that I had chosen right.
The vows still hummed in my chest as the reception spilled into laughter and clinking glasses.
Halfway down, I caught Peter mouthing something to Evan over my veil. I couldn’t make out the words. I told myself it didn’t matter.
The vows still hummed in my chest as the reception spilled into laughter and clinking glasses. I moved through the room like a woman who had finally been forgiven by her own life, accepting kisses on the cheek, posing for cameras, letting strangers tell me I looked radiant.
Across the ballroom, Evan stood by the cake with my brother, their heads tilted together, two champagne flutes raised in a private toast.
Peter laughed at something Evan said. Evan laughed back, the kind of laugh that felt rehearsed for an audience that wasn’t watching.
I almost walked over. Then Sophie appeared at my hip.
I knelt, careful with the veil, and cupped her cheek.
Her flower crown had slipped sideways, and one little white shoe was missing. She tugged the lace at my waist hard enough to pull a stitch.
“Mommy.”
I knelt, careful with the veil, and cupped her cheek.
“What is it, baby?”
“Evan and Uncle Peter were bad.”
The music kept playing. Somewhere behind me, a guest laughed too loudly at a joke I couldn’t hear.
