So I smiled.
Raised my glass.
Let them laugh.
I had been doing that my entire life.
When I was sixteen, Victor joked during Christmas dinner that Maren had inherited beauty while I had inherited “opinions.”
At twenty-one, he told guests at my graduation party that I was likely to become “professionally difficult.”
At twenty-eight, after a relationship ended, he announced at Thanksgiving that Maren should hurry up and marry before “Evelyn’s luck became hereditary.”
Everybody knew Victor loved us.
That was always the defense.
He paid tuition.
Taught us to drive.
Sat beside my hospital bed when I had pneumonia at nineteen.
Called every Sunday when I first moved away.
Love existed.
So did the harm.
Families become complicated when both are true.
I escaped to the terrace after his speech.
The cold night air felt better than the ballroom.
Behind Rosemere Hall stretched formal gardens and a stone fountain surrounded by tiny lights.
I stood beside it and breathed.
Then Victor followed me.
Of course he did.
“Evelyn.”
I closed my eyes.
“Not now.”
“You embarrassed me in there.”
I turned.
“I embarrassed you?”
“You walked away in the middle of the toast.”
“After you made me the toast.”
He sighed.
“Oh, please.”
“It was a joke.”
“So was the one at Christmas.”
“And Maren’s engagement dinner.”
“And Aunt Rosalind’s birthday.”
“You keep excellent records.”
“I’ve had thirty-two years of practice.”
Victor’s expression hardened.
He looked toward the ballroom windows.
Guests could see us.
That mattered to him.
“Stop sulking.”
“I’m not sulking.”
“You have been acting strange all evening.”
“I came to celebrate Maren.”
“Then act like it.”
He glanced down at my pale green dress.
“You already look miserable.”
Something inside me tightened.
“Go back inside, Dad.”
He stepped closer.
“You know what your problem is?”
“I’m sure you’ll tell me.”
“You decide everyone is judging you before they’ve even had a chance.”
I almost laughed.
“You literally gave them a microphone-assisted invitation.”
“Enough.”
He placed his hands on my shoulders.
I thought he was moving me aside so another couple could pass.
