Her expression softened.
“He told me what he did. He knows he handled it badly.”
“Yes,” I said. “He does.”
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then she smiled sadly.
“Mom would probably have told us both to stop arguing over a ring and remember why we loved each other.”
I laughed softly.
“Honestly, that sounds like something my mother would say too.”
The tension between us eased.
We began talking about Daniel’s childhood, the stories their mother used to tell, and the little habits he had inherited from her.
For the first time, I felt that I was learning something important about the family I hoped to join.
His sister wasn’t simply the woman who had taken my engagement ring.
She was a daughter who missed her mother, a sister who feared losing her brother, and a person who had reacted badly to a painful situation.
That didn’t make her behavior right.
