Adele squeezed my arm.
For an hour, I let the wedding stay beautiful. Jerome teared up before Adele did. Mia cried right along with them. Lucille handed her a tissue without ever looking away from Maya.
Then I caught Maya talking near Harry’s family.
“I wanted to be there,” she said. “Of course I did. But Robert made things difficult.”
Harry nodded along. “Maya tried for years. He kept the girls isolated.”
A woman beside him fixed her eyes on me.
Maya sighed. “You don’t know what it does to a mother to be kept from her babies.”
I put down my water glass.
“He kept the girls isolated.”
Penelope came up beside me. “Dad.”
Mia’s eyes were welling up. “Please tell me you heard that.”
“I heard.”
Lucille’s tone was flat. “Say the word.”
Piper murmured, “Not here. Please.”
Shannon simply stared at Maya.
I took a step forward.
“Please tell me you heard that.”
Adele put a hand on my arm.
“Not yet, Dad.”
“She’s lying about all of us.”
“I know.”
“Then why wait?”
Adele glanced toward the white box by the gift table.
“Because this time, we’re not answering a lie with anger. We’re answering it with proof.”
Across the room, Maya laughed as though she’d already won.
“She’s lying about all of us.”
Before the scheduled toasts wrapped up, Maya rose and reached for the microphone.
“If I may,” she said, smiling at Harry. “A mother should say a few words on her daughter’s wedding day.”
My chair scraped against the floor.
Adele rose first.
Maya raised the microphone. “Adele, my beautiful girl, from the day you were born, I dreamed of seeing you in white.”
Adele’s expression stayed composed.
“I dreamed of seeing you in white.”
“A mother’s love never leaves,” Maya went on. “Even when life, pain, and other people pull her away from her children.”
The room went silent.
“There are things children can’t understand. Sometimes a mother is kept from her children.”
Adele stepped forward. “Actually, Mom, before you finish, I have something for you.”
Penelope and Lucille carried out the white box, tied with a satin ribbon.
Maya blinked, then broke into a wider smile. “For me?”
“I have something for you.”
“For you,” Adele said. “Open it.”
Maya loosened the ribbon and lifted the lid.
At first, she just stared.
