The diamond on my sister’s finger caught the chandelier light like it was begging for attention, and Amanda made sure it got plenty. She stood at the head of our parents’ dining table in Richmond, holding her hand at just the right angle so the stone could perform for its audience of six. My daughter Emma, eight years old with honey-colored braids, stopped swinging her legs under her chair to stare.
My son James, ten and already too serious for his age, pretended not to look while he rolled his dinner roll into a tiny football.
“We’re having the wedding at Riverside Gardens,” Amanda announced, her voice carrying that particular pitch of triumph she’d perfected over the years. “Two hundred guests.
The waiting list is normally eighteen months, but Marcus’s family has connections.” She glanced at Marcus, her fiancé, who smiled with the easy confidence of someone who’d never had to check a price tag. He wore a watch that cost more than most people’s cars and an expression that suggested he knew it.
My father nodded as though the venue name itself was an achievement.
My mother’s eyes widened with that specific brand of pride she reserved for Amanda’s accomplishments—the kind of pride that had always felt rationed in our family, as if there wasn’t quite enough to go around. My brother Ethan shifted uncomfortably in his seat, studying his plate like it contained answers to questions he was too afraid to ask. “Can I be a flower girl, Aunt Amanda?” Emma asked, her voice bright with hope.
“I promise I’d be so careful and wear the prettiest dress.”
The silence that followed was the kind that has weight, the kind that presses down on your chest and makes you forget how to breathe normally.
My father set down his fork with deliberate care. Ethan’s shoulders tensed.
And Amanda’s perfect smile tightened at the edges, transforming into something that looked pleasant from a distance but felt like ice up close. “We’ll see, sweetie,” Amanda said, her tone suggesting that “we’ll see” meant “absolutely not, but I’m too polite to say it in front of everyone.” My mother jumped in immediately, the way she always did when Amanda needed rescuing from an uncomfortable moment.
“Amanda has so many important people to invite, sweetheart.
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