Then the doors opened.
I knew Maya had arrived before I even saw her.
The room shifted.
Voices dropped.
Maya walked in wearing a sparkling dress more suited to a gala than her daughter’s wedding. Diamonds flashed at her throat. Harry walked beside her, neat and expensive, his family close behind.
Then the doors opened.
Maya saw Adele and opened her arms.
“My beautiful girl!”
Her voice carried across the room.
“I dreamed of this day,” Maya said, loud enough for Harry’s family to hear. “You have no idea how long I’ve dreamed of seeing you like this.”
Adele smiled, but I knew that smile. Polite. Not warm.
“I’m glad you made it,” she said.
“My beautiful girl!”
Maya touched Adele’s cheek.
Then turned to me. “Robert.”
“Maya.”
Her eyes ran over my suit. “You look tired.”
“Fifteen years of parenting will do that.”
Harry shifted behind her.
Maya’s smile tightened. “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 sharpened. “You always were good at making yourself look noble.”
My jaw tightened.
Adele looked at me over her mother’s shoulder.
Not yet.
So I swallowed the answer I wanted to give.
“This is Adele’s wedding.”
The ceremony started soon after. Adele looped her arm through mine, and for a second I saw the girl from the stairs again.
“You’re squeezing my hand, Dad,” she whispered.
The doors opened, everyone stood.
When we reached Jerome, he looked at Adele like he understood exactly what she’d survived without needing her to explain it.
The officiant asked who was giving her away.
“You’re squeezing my hand, Dad.”
I opened my mouth.
Adele squeezed my arm. “The man who raised me does.”
A murmur went through the room.
I kissed her cheek and stepped back.
Maya wasn’t smiling anymore.
Adele squeezed my arm.
For an hour, I let the wedding just be beautiful. Jerome cried before Adele did. Mia cried right along with them. Lucille passed her a tissue without ever looking away from Maya.
Then I overheard Maya near Harry’s family.
“I wanted to be there,” she was saying. “Of course I did. But Robert made things difficult.”
Harry nodded. “Maya tried for years. He kept the girls isolated.”
