When Lily asked if they were going back to the big house with the snowman, Caleb told her, “We don’t go there anymore.”
He said it so matter-of-factly that Nadia had to leave the room.
I threw myself into work.
January is actually busy for catering. New Year’s parties, corporate kickoffs, that kind of thing.
I was running events three or four nights a week, which kept my brain occupied.
But every night after the crew cleaned up and went home, I’d sit in my truck in the parking lot of whatever venue we just worked and replay that moment.
Caleb walking around the table, reading every card, looking up at Susette.
I kept coming back to the text I’d seen on Garrett’s phone.
“I have a plan.”
That meant it wasn’t carelessness. It wasn’t stress. It wasn’t miscounting.
Susette had sat down, thought about my family, and deliberately decided to exclude us for seven years.
The question was why.
I didn’t have a good answer for that.
Nadia and I had never done anything to Susette.
We showed up to every Christmas. We brought gifts. We were polite.
My catering company was doing well, but it wasn’t like we were flaunting anything.
We drive a Hyundai and live in a three-bedroom ranch.
There was no rivalry, no history, no falling out.
She just didn’t want us there.
In mid-January, my mom finally called.
“Wesley, I think you overreacted.”
That was her opener.
No hello, no how are the kids? Just straight to telling me I was the problem.
“Mom, she told Caleb he doesn’t belong at the family table.”
“She said it came out wrong. She was stressed about the food, and she misspoke.”
“She preplanned it. She texted Garrett about it that morning.”
Silence on the line for a second.
Then:
“I don’t know anything about that. What I know is that you made a scene. You embarrassed Susette in her own home, and you ruined Christmas for everyone.”
I wanted to say a lot of things.
I said, “Okay, Mom.”
And I hung up.
A few days later, Garrett called.
He started with an apology, which was more than I expected.
“I know it was messed up, Wes. I’m sorry.”
“Did you know she was going to do that?”
Long pause.
“Not exactly. She told me she was keeping the table to 14 because of the new china set. She said she’d set you guys up in the sunroom again, and you were fine with that. I told her to add more chairs, and she said there wasn’t room. I dropped it.”
“Garrett, there was room. There’s always been room. She just doesn’t want us in it.”
He sighed.
That long, tired sigh he does when he knows I’m right but doesn’t want to deal with it.
“What do you want me to do, Wes?”
“Nothing. I don’t want you to do anything. I’m done asking you to do things.”
That conversation bothered me for days.
Not because of what Garrett said, but because of what he mentioned about Aunt Viv.
Susette had told us in November that Viv wasn’t feeling up to Christmas.
But when I counted the table settings, there was no card for Viv either.
It hit me that I hadn’t seen Viv at Christmas last year either, or the year before that.
So, I called her.
Aunt Viv is my mom’s sister. She’s 62, lives alone since Uncle Ray passed, and she’s one of the most genuinely kind people I know.
She used to come to every family event. Then she just stopped showing up a couple years ago.
I’d asked my mom about it once, and Mom said Viv was going through something and preferred to keep to herself.
Viv picked up on the second ring and sounded surprised to hear from me.
We talked for a while. How are the kids? How’s the business? Normal stuff.
Then I asked her why she hadn’t come to Christmas.
She went quiet.
Then she said, “Honey, I wasn’t invited.”
I sat down.
“What do you mean you weren’t invited?”
“Susette called me two years ago, the year after Ry died, and said she was keeping Christmas small that year, just immediate family. She said she hoped I understood, with everything I was going through, that it might be too much for me.
“I told her I’d love to come, that being around family was exactly what I needed. She said she’d think about it and get back to me. She never called back.”
“What about last year?”
“She called again and said the same thing. Small gathering. She said she’d talk to Marilyn and that your mother thought it would be best if I sat this one out.”
“Did you talk to Mom about it?”
“I tried. Your mother said Susette handles Christmas now, and she doesn’t get involved in the planning.”
My heart was hammering.