His smile had disappeared completely, and suddenly I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear what came next.
We stepped out into a long hallway lined with oil paintings. The noise of the reception faded behind the heavy doors.
“Veronica,” he said, “Max was wrong about you. Completely. But there’s something I should have said before we came.”
My stomach tightened. “What?”
“You asked me to come because you thought bringing someone who looks like me would prove something to him.” He paused. “I said yes because I hoped you’d realize it wouldn’t.”
I stared at him. My face burned all over again, but this time for a different reason.
“You could have told me that before we came, Ed.”
“Yes.”
“Instead, you let me walk in there and pretend you were my boyfriend. You let me stand there while he laughed at me.” My voice cracked. “You don’t get to teach me life lessons by tricking me.”
“You’re right,” he said.
No explanation. No excuse. No “but I meant well.”
Just that.
I turned and walked farther down the hallway, because I was about thirty seconds away from crying at my ex-husband’s wedding, and that was a level of humiliation I refused to give Max for free.
Edward followed, but he kept several feet between us. He didn’t try to touch my arm or fix it. He just stayed.
Then a small voice stopped me.
“Mom?”
Lily was standing at the end of the hallway in her pale pink junior bridesmaid dress.
I quickly wiped under one eye. “Hey, sweetheart.”
She looked past me toward the ballroom doors. Then back at me.
“Why did Dad say nobody would date you?”
My heart dropped. She’d heard. Of course she’d heard.
I crouched down so we were eye to eye.
“He was being unkind, baby.”
She thought about that for a moment. Then she glanced at Edward.
“So Edward isn’t your boyfriend?”
“No.”
“Then why did you say he was?”
There are moments in parenting when lying would be so much easier. When a small, harmless fib would make everything smoother.
I couldn’t do it. Not to her. Not after everything.
“Because I wanted your dad to think somebody wanted me,” I said quietly.
Lily frowned, like I had said something that didn’t make any sense.
“But we wanted you here.”
I didn’t answer. There wasn’t anything I could add that wouldn’t make it smaller.
She threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tight. Then somebody called her name from the reception, something about the bridal party photos, and she let go and ran back.
I stayed crouched on the floor for another second, trying to catch my breath.
When I finally stood up, Edward was still there, waiting.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“I’m still mad at you.”
“You should be.”
Part Eight: The Reflection in the Window
Before I could say anything else, the ballroom doors swung open and Max came striding down the hallway.
He’d left the trousers on the table. His smugness had returned, fully restored, like nothing had happened.
He looked at Edward. Then at me.
And I realized I didn’t want to hear whatever he was about to say. For thirteen years, I had waited for Max to tell me what I was worth. I was tired of waiting.
So I spoke first.
“You’re marrying Claire,” I said. “You got exactly what you wanted. So why do you still need me to be undesirable?”
He opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
Claire had followed him into the hallway. She stood several feet behind him in her white gown, her arms folded.
Max glanced back at her. “She’s twisting this.”
Claire looked at me for a long moment. Then she looked at him.
“You told me she stopped trying,” she said slowly.
Max frowned. “She did.”
Claire’s eyes didn’t leave his face.
“That’s not what I just heard.”
Max wasn’t smiling anymore.
And for the first time since the day he packed that suitcase, I wasn’t standing there waiting for him to tell me what it meant about me.
