Skip to content He stopped talking.
Amelia wiped her face with her sleeve.
Then she suddenly said,
“Everybody keeps saying there used to be seven people in our family.”
Ryan and I exchanged confused looks.
She started counting on her fingers.
“You. Dad. Me. And the other three kids.”
She paused.
“But there was supposed to be another one.”
Nobody spoke.
Amelia looked directly at Ryan.
“Does the baby still count as part of our family?”
Ryan looked away for a moment.
Then he looked back at her.
“Yes.”
Amelia nodded.
That seemed to be all she needed.
The garden door opened.
Lina stepped outside in her wedding dress.
For the first time since I had arrived, every adult looked uncomfortable.
She approached slowly.
“Amelia…”
Amelia moved closer to me.
Lina stopped.
“I want you to know I’m not trying to replace your mother.”
Amelia frowned.
“Then why do you keep saying you’re going to be my new mom?”
Lina’s expression stiffened.
“I said bonus mom.”
“That still has ‘mom’ in it.”
Nobody corrected her.
Then Amelia asked the same question she had asked me that morning.
“Are you still Mom’s sister?”
Lina looked at me.
She was standing there in her white wedding dress.
My younger sister.
The woman who had spent months behaving as though my pain was simply an inconvenient obstacle to everyone else’s happiness.
For once, she had nothing to say.
No explanation.
No new label.
Nothing.
Amelia walked back toward the bench and picked up her candle.
Ryan watched her.
“What are you doing?”
She sniffed.
“I’m taking mine home.”