She looked at the box.

“I don’t deserve that today.”

“It’s not about deserving it.”

I put it back in my purse.

Three months later, Lauren and Ethan married in a small ceremony.

Before Lauren walked down the aisle, I opened the velvet box.

No invented family history.

No pretending.

Before Lauren walked down the aisle, I opened the velvet box.

Her eyes filled.

“Will you?”

She turned around.

I fastened my mother’s pearl locket around her neck.

“You already had a good story.”

Lauren touched the pearls once, then looked at me in the mirror.

“I spent years trying to make my story sound better.”

“You already had a good story.”

She nodded.

Then someone called from the chapel that they were ready.

Lauren took my hand.

“Not yet.”

She led me into the chapel herself.

I looked at her.

“What?”

“I’m not walking out there until you’re in your seat.”

She led me into the chapel herself.

Three months earlier, I’d hidden behind white roses in the last pew because my daughter didn’t want me seen.

This time, she wouldn’t let the ceremony begin until I was sitting in the front row.