Chapter 3

Before dinner, I asked the events director to remove the blessing printed under my name. Victoria still wore the dress. I steadied my breathing before looking at its pearls.

The director showed me her tablet. The press copy was ready: Lenora welcomes Victoria and Adrian as a new family.

"I never said that."

Before she could answer, the lights dimmed. My mother took the microphone beside her new husband.

"The blessing I want most tonight is my daughter's," Victoria said. A light found me. "Since her father died, I've worried she had no one to depend on. Now Adrian is my husband."

Guests turned toward me with pity. At thirty-five, I had a job and a home. My mother had used Dad's death to suggest I needed a new father.

Adrian didn't correct her. Last night he'd used that fear to wound me. Now he watched Victoria offer it to a roomful of people.

I set down my napkin and walked to the platform, watching my heels so no one would see my legs shake.

I took the microphone. "I didn't write the blessing in the program. I never agreed to introduce your husband."

My mother's smile faltered. She took the microphone and linked her arm through mine, fingernails pressing through my sleeve.

"It's been a shock for her," she told the guests. "Lenora has always been afraid of losing family. Let's give her time."

She shifted me toward the photographer. Her dress, Adrian, and her daughter would make a perfect family. She wanted me afraid enough to stand where she'd put me.

"Mom, leave Dad out of this." Only she could hear me.

She held my hand and kept smiling for the camera. "If he were here, he'd want the three of us together."

She put my hand in Adrian's. Five days earlier, he'd asked me to marry him. Now his wedding band pressed against my knuckles; my cuff link brushed my wrist.

Adrian turned to the guests without letting go. "She's always depended on us. Please give her time to adjust to me being her stepfather."

Someone murmured that my mother had been through so much. Adrian had turned the woman he'd planned to marry into a child needing patience.

Victoria asked for a family portrait. One hand rested on Adrian's shoulder; the other pressed against my back. I could smell her perfume on the dress I'd chosen.

While the camera was adjusted, Adrian bent his head. His hand was still around mine. "Just take the picture. Give me six months and we can go back to our plan."

He'd told the room he was my stepfather and wanted me to believe he could take it back. I pulled free. His ring had left a red mark.

"Don't speak for me about a relationship I never agreed to." This time I let the guests hear me.

The photographer lowered his camera. I left without telling the guests we'd been together. I refused to turn eleven months of my life into their wedding entertainment.

In the hallway, I emailed the events director: no blessing under my name, no use of my image in a new-family announcement. She acknowledged it. No three-person portrait had been taken.

Minutes later, Victoria's assistant told me I was no longer speaking at the hotel launch I'd spent three months preparing. Adrian would take my place.

Then Victoria texted: Your bags are still at home. Come for them tomorrow morning. We'll both be there.

I read we'll both be there twice. I would collect my things. I also wanted Adrian to explain those six months with my mother beside him.