I stared at my reflection in the restroom mirror, my heart racing as my damp hair clung to my face. Mascara was smudged beneath my eyes, and my simple black dress looked far darker and starker than the soft green gown my mother had forced me to wear that morning.
“You’ll look softer in green,” she had insisted. “Softer” was my family’s code word for compliant, quiet, and easily pushed around—never difficult, never angry, and never successful enough to overshadow my younger sister, Sophie.
Ten minutes earlier, my father, Graham Hart, had “jokingly” shoved me into the courtyard fountain at Sophie’s multi-million-dollar wedding reception, laughing as the guests joined in. But as I wiped the water from my face, I pulled out my phone and sent a single text message to a number no one in my family knew existed:
“I need you. Now.”
He had promised me years ago that if I ever sent those words, he would drop everything and appear. No questions asked.
The Mask of Family Perfection
The restroom door swung open, revealing my mother, Elaine, dressed in a sparkling champagne gown, alongside Sophie in her custom wedding dress.
“Oh my God, Clara,” Sophie gasped, her eyes scanning my black attire with embarrassment rather than concern. “Where is your green dress?”
