Everyone laughed when they sent an eighty-year-old man and his eighteen-year-old wife off to spend their wedding night together. “Let’s see if Grandpa can make it until morning,” one relative joked through a burst of laughter. He didn’t respond. He simply picked up his old briefcase and closed the door. When six relatives opened it the next morning, they stopped laughing when they discovered what he had been protecting all night.

“I had no idea what was actually happening,” Nancy stammered nervously.

“That is precisely the root of the problem,” Walter responded coldly.

“You didn’t know a single fact, yet you chose to speak with utter contempt.”

Brandon lowered his eyes in deep shame, unable to look his uncle in the eye.

Hannah was the very first relative to step forward, walking past the men to sit beside Chloe on the edge of the bed.

“Please forgive me for my silence last night,” Hannah said quietly while taking Chloe’s hand.