Chapter 17 — An Hour of Peace

For the next hour, I let myself simply have the wedding.

I set Laura aside in my mind, set the box aside, set the fifteen years aside, and I let the ceremony be exactly as beautiful and as emotional as my daughter deserved it to be.

Timothy cried before Samantha did, which made me love him a little more, and Paisley cried right along with the two of them, and half the guests were reaching for tissues before the vows were even finished.

Brooklyn, my fierce one, quietly passed her sister a tissue without ever once taking her sharp watchful eyes off Laura, standing guard even in the middle of a wedding, because that was who fifteen years had made her.