Chapter 12 — No One Left to Defend Her
It was my mother who broke it.
Of course it was.
“They should stop complaining,” she said, into the quiet, in the same reasonable house-policy voice she’d used on me in the doorway. ”
It’s a wedding.
People contribute to weddings.
All this fuss over a little—”
“No.”
The word came from Aunt Diane, my mother’s own sister, and it stopped my mother mid-sentence.
Diane had risen fully to her feet now, and she was not fragile anymore. ”
No, Ruth,” she said. ”
Don’t you dare.
We trusted you.
We trusted her.”
Her voice shook, but she didn’t sit down. ”
I gave that girl three hundred dollars and a lie to go with it, and you stood there and let me.
You’ve always let her.
You’ve let her do this her whole life.”