Ryan opened the family group chat.
He uploaded the photo I’d taken before the invitations were destroyed.
Under it, he posted another photo showing them inside the bucket.
Then he wrote:
Mom is telling people she has been excluded from our wedding for no reason. These are the invitations before and after her ‘accident.’ They were in the middle of the table. This happened after we refused to add eighteen more people to our guest list. Changing the wedding was my decision. Excluding Mom was also my decision. Please stop blaming my fiancée.
The chat exploded.
Some relatives defended us.
Others defended Mavis.
One uncle wrote, She’s still your mother.
Ryan replied:
That doesn’t mean she gets to punish my future wife every time she hears no.
That ended most of the argument.
Mavis called Ryan twelve times.
He didn’t answer.
Then Frank called.
Ryan answered that one.
They spoke for almost forty minutes.
When he finally hung up, he looked stunned.
“What?”
He rubbed his face.
“Dad asked her.”
“Asked her what?”
“If she did it deliberately.”
My stomach tightened.
Apparently, Frank had gone back through everything.
The photograph.
The dry table.
The spotless floor.
