“Has it?” I asked evenly.
“You’ve made your point. You’re upset. Fine, but punishing your mother like this, leaving her out of her only son’s wedding.”
I blinked.
Only son.
First time I’d heard him refer to me like that in years.
“I didn’t set out to punish anyone,” I said. “But you all left me out of Camille’s engagement. Didn’t even tell me it was happening.”
“That’s different,” he muttered. “Camille needed—”
“Needed what?” I snapped louder than I intended. “A perfect day? And you thought I’d ruin it just by showing up.”
He looked away.
I kept going.
“You made me feel like a threat to my own sister’s happiness, like I was poison. And you never once asked how that felt.”
He sighed.
“We didn’t think it would matter so much to you. You’ve always been independent.”
“That’s code for we thought you’d take it and stay quiet. And I always did.”
He was silent again.
I could see in his eyes that he didn’t know what to say. Not because he didn’t have excuses, but because this was the first time he’d ever been asked to listen to me instead of assuming I’d just go along with it.
“We’re not trying to hurt you,” he finally said, quieter this time. “We just thought you didn’t care.”
I stood up.
“That’s the problem. You never thought to check.”
He looked up at me.
“Can we at least come to the wedding?”
I paused for a second. I wanted to say yes. I wanted to believe he meant it.
But then I remembered every year I spent watching them cheer for Camille while pretending I wasn’t there. Every time they turned birthdays and holidays into background noise, unless she was the center, every phone call I initiated, never the other way around.
I took a deep breath.
“I think maybe this time you need to feel what it’s like to be left out.”
He didn’t argue, just nodded slowly and walked out of the shop.
Later that evening, I told Mariah everything. She didn’t say much, just wrapped her arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” she whispered.
And I believed her.
But things didn’t end there.