Nathan noticed and became worried.
“I said something bad?”
“No,” I whispered.
I stood up and hugged him.
“You didn’t say anything bad.”
He hugged me back.
“I can do it,” he said quietly. “Dad showed me how.”
That sentence broke something inside me.
Dad had never actually shown Nathan how to walk a bride down an aisle.
But Nathan remembered watching Dad walk beside me when I was younger. He remembered how Dad held my arm at family events. He remembered enough to understand what the role meant.
He wasn’t asking for attention.
He wasn’t trying to replace Dad.
He was trying to make sure I didn’t have to walk into that moment alone.
Mom started crying.
Daniel reached across the table and took my hand.
“I think it’s perfect,” he said.
Nathan smiled.
But someone else didn’t.
Daniel’s mother, Margaret, had been sitting quietly in the corner.
She hadn’t said a word.
She simply stared at Nathan.
I noticed it.
I just didn’t understand it yet.
Four days later, we were having dinner at Margaret’s house.
Everything seemed normal at first.
She asked about the flowers.
She complained about the seating chart.
She reminded us that several relatives would be traveling a long way for the wedding.
