Chapter 9 - The Wedding Guests Remembered More Than Daniel Did
The resort incident did not remain private.
Too many people had seen pieces of it.
Daniel did not post anything.
He did not ask guests to choose sides.
But his cousin Rachel called.
Then the groom’s mother.
Then a bridesmaid.
Their memories added context.
Before the terrace incident, Vanessa had been agitated for hours.
She repeatedly asked where Claire was.
She became angry when Lily wanted to sit beside Claire during photographs.
One bridesmaid remembered Vanessa crouching beside Lily and saying:
“You’re going home with Mommy Vanessa, right?”
The woman had assumed it was affectionate.
Now it sounded different.
Another guest remembered Claire telling Vanessa:
“She contacted me again.”
Daniel stared at the phone.
“When?”
“Near the floral arch. Maybe twenty minutes before everything happened.”
Daniel called Claire.
“What did you tell Vanessa at the wedding?”
Silence.
“Claire.”
“That Emma wanted to send Lily a birthday letter.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Lily’s birthday was in six weeks.
“You told Vanessa before you told me.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“But you did.”
“She cornered me.”
“Why mention Emma at all?”
“She said I needed to disappear from Lily’s life once the adoption happened.”
Daniel went still.
Claire continued.
“I told her the adoption wasn’t happening as cleanly as she thought.”
“You used Emma as a weapon.”
Claire’s voice cracked.
“Yes.”
At least she admitted it.
That explained Vanessa’s emotional state before the terrace.
It did not excuse what she did.
But the event had not erupted from nowhere.
Vanessa believed Claire was about to destroy the future she had been promised.
So she demanded Lily publicly choose her.
Daniel finally understood the emotional logic.
It was ugly.
It was also human.
Then Rebecca Shaw called.
Emma had agreed to speak through counsel.
Daniel sat down.
“Where is she?”
“Still in Portland.”
“Is she stable?”
“I cannot answer that yet.”
“Does she want Lily?”
Rebecca corrected him.
“She wants to begin discussing whether contact can happen safely.”
Daniel appreciated the distinction.
Then came the complication.
Emma had one condition before she would proceed.
She wanted Daniel to hear directly why she left the Vermont treatment center three years earlier.
Not from Claire.
From her.
Daniel stared out the window.
May you like
For three years he had imagined what he would say if Emma ever appeared again.
Now that the conversation might actually happen, he was afraid to hear her answer.
