Now the jacket hung heavily from him as he wrapped one arm around my mother and held her above the water.
“Elaine,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
At the pool’s edge stood Olivia Sterling.
My future mother-in-law wore a pale gold gown and enough diamonds to make the skin around her neck sparkle under the afternoon sun.
One perfectly manicured hand remained extended.
The same hand she had placed against my mother’s shoulder before pushing both of my parents backward.
She looked down at them.
Then she wrinkled her nose.
“I have never seen such a pitiful family,” she said.
Her voice carried easily across the terrace.
Hundreds of guests watched.
Business executives.
Politicians.
Charity directors.
Old-money families whose names appeared on university buildings and hospital wings.
Olivia turned toward them as though she had just delivered the final line of a speech.
“Perhaps a swim will wash away the smell of poverty.”
…
“This wedding is canceled.”
That was the sound of my life becoming mine again.
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