The Candle Labeled “To Brandon’s Girl”
I watched her hand disappear into it.
And when it came back out, her small fingers were wrapped around the red velvet box.
I want to describe what happened in the room in that instant, though almost nothing happened that anyone could have photographed — only that the entire center of gravity of that house shifted, silently, from the head of the table to a child in a wrinkled gold dress, and Gene did not feel it yet, and everyone else was about to.
Holly pushed back her chair.