Chapter 13 - THE FAMILY SHE LIED TO NEXT
Daniel's younger children were adults now.
Nathan was twenty-five.
Olivia was twenty-two.
They had grown up calling Chloe their stepmother.
And unlike my daughters, they had memories of her being present.
Christmas mornings.
Vacations.
Birthdays.
Graduations.
That made the truth complicated.
Olivia began crying when Emma explained what had happened.
“She told us Luca wouldn't let her visit.”
“I know,” Emma said.
Nathan looked at me.
“Did you?”
“No.”
He looked toward the door Chloe had just walked through.
“She came to my baseball games.”
I didn't know what to say.
The cruelty wasn't that Chloe had been incapable of motherhood.
She had been capable of showing up.
She had simply chosen which children to show up for.
That realization hit my daughters harder than I expected.
Hannah walked outside.
Emily followed.
I found them several minutes later on the terrace.
Hannah was crying.
“I wish she'd been terrible to everyone.”
I understood immediately.
If Chloe had been incapable of caring about any child, abandonment might have been easier to explain.
But she had learned Nathan's baseball schedule.
Helped Olivia shop for prom dresses.
Taken Emma on college tours.
All while six biological daughters waited for a birthday phone call.
“You're allowed to be angry,” I said.
Hannah wiped her face.
“I don't want to be angry tonight.”
“Then don't give her tonight.”
That became our rule.
Chloe had already taken fifteen years.
She wasn't taking Jessi's wedding too.
We returned inside.
Jessi's husband, Ryan, had been astonishingly patient through everything.
He approached her and quietly asked:
“Can I finally marry you?”
The entire room laughed.
Jessi looked horrified.
“Oh my God. I forgot we're supposed to be having a wedding.”
That broke the tension.
The band started.
Dinner was reheated.
Champagne was poured.
The cake survived.
People began dancing.
For the first time that evening, the ballroom felt like a celebration again.
Then Daniel approached me privately.
“I'll cooperate with whatever accounting is necessary.”
“Good.”
“And Luca?”
I looked at him.
“I can't undo what I did fifteen years ago.”
“No.”
“I know.”
He extended his hand.
I stared at it.
Then shook it once.
Not forgiveness.
Not friendship.
Closure.
Across the room, Emma was laughing with my daughters.
Seven young women who should never have needed to meet because of someone else's lies.
Jessi suddenly called my name.
“Dad! Dance floor.”
I smiled.
“One bride. One father-daughter dance.”
She grinned.
“Actually…”
May you like
Her five sisters stepped onto the floor behind her.
And I realized they had changed the plan.
