“Dad?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Do I have to hug her?”
The room fell silent.
I rested both hands on her shoulders. “No. Nobody gets a hug just because they share blood.”
“Do I have to hug her?”
Her shoulders relaxed. “Okay.”
Piper kept checking whether everyone had eaten, a sure sign she hadn’t.
Then the doors swung open.
I could tell Maya had arrived before I even saw her.
The mood in the room shifted.
Voices dropped.
Maya entered in a sparkling gown better suited to a gala than her own daughter’s wedding. Diamonds glittered at her throat. Harry walked beside her, polished and expensive-looking, his family trailing close behind.
Then the doors swung open.
Maya spotted Adele and threw her arms open.
“My beautiful girl!”
Her voice rang across the room.
“I dreamed of this day,” Maya said, pitched loud enough for Harry’s family to catch. “You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of seeing you like this.”
Adele smiled, but I recognized that smile — courteous, not warm.
“I’m glad you made it,” she said.
“My beautiful girl!”
Maya reached up to touch Adele’s cheek.
Then she turned toward me. “Robert.”
“Maya.”
Her gaze swept over my suit. “You look tired.”
“Fifteen years of parenting will do that.”
Harry shifted behind her.
Maya’s smile stiffened. “Don’t start today.”
Maya touched Adele’s cheek.
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“This is Adele’s wedding.”
“I know. That’s why I’m here.”
Her eyes narrowed. “You always were good at making yourself look noble.”
My jaw clenched.
Adele caught my eye over Maya’s shoulder.
Not yet.
So I held back the reply I wanted to give.
“This is Adele’s wedding.”
The ceremony began shortly after. Adele hooked her arm through mine, and for a moment I saw that girl from the stairs all over again.
“You’re squeezing my hand, Dad,” she whispered.
The doors opened, and the room rose to its feet.
When we reached Jerome, he looked at Adele with an understanding of what she’d endured, without needing her to spell it out.
The officiant asked who was giving her away.
“You’re squeezing my hand, Dad.”
I started to speak.
Adele squeezed my arm. “The man who raised me does.”
A murmur passed through the room.
I kissed her cheek and stepped aside.
Maya’s smile was gone.
