Chapter 1 - The empty chair
My name is James Holloway.
I was thirty-eight years old when I walked into my niece’s father’s wedding and watched him slap a seven-year-old girl for saying she wanted her mother.
My sister Emily was thirty-five.
Ryan Bennett was thirty-seven.
They had been married for eleven years.
Lily was their only child.
For fourteen months, Lily had believed her mother was dead.
That lie ended inside a Texas country-club ballroom filled with white roses, crystal chandeliers, politicians, wealthy business owners, physicians, lawyers, and enough people with expensive watches to make the security guard at the front door uncomfortable when I arrived without an invitation.
Ryan’s wedding to Vanessa Cole was being held at Briarwood Country Club outside Dallas.
I had been told not to come.
Ryan had made that clear through his lawyer.
I came anyway.
The first thing I saw through the ballroom doors was Lily.
Brown hair.
Pale formal dress.
Flat shoes.
Standing beside an empty chair near the wedding party.
Vanessa wore an elegant white gown.
Thirty-three.
Beautiful.
Controlled.
She had never been cruel to me personally.
We had barely met.
But the expression she gave Lily told me enough.
Impatience.
Lily stared at the chair.
“I want my mommy.”
Several guests looked away.
Ryan stepped toward her.
“Not now.”
Lily’s eyes filled.
Vanessa leaned down.
“This is supposed to be a happy day.”
Lily looked at her.
“I don’t want her to be my new mommy!”
Ryan’s face hardened.
He grabbed Lily by the arm.
She pulled away.
Then he slapped her.
Once.
Open-handed.
Across the cheek.
The sound reached the hallway.
Lily stumbled.
Then cried.
Something inside me moved before thought did.
I shoved open the ballroom doors.
“Ryan!”
He turned.
I crossed the space between us.
He raised one hand.
I kicked him hard enough in the hip and lower torso to knock him backward.
He crashed against the edge of a chair.
I did not follow.
I dropped beside Lily.
She came into my arms.
“Uncle James.”
“I’ve got you.”
Her cheek was red.
No blood.
No visible cut.
She was shaking.
Ryan pushed himself upright.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
I ignored him.
Lily pressed both hands against my jacket.
“Daddy says Mommy is gone.”
My chest tightened.
That was the sentence I had been afraid of.
Not:
Mommy is sick.
Not:
Mommy can’t come home.
Gone.
I held Lily’s face carefully.
“No, sweetheart.”
She stared at me.
“Your mother is still alive.”
Behind us, glass shattered.
Vanessa had dropped her champagne flute.
Ryan went completely still.
Then every face in the ballroom turned toward the entrance.
Emily stood gripping the doorframe.
Simple dark clothes.
Thin.
Her left hand trembled against the wood.
Her hair was shorter than Lily remembered.
Her body was smaller.
But her eyes were the same.
Lily went completely still.
“Mommy?”
Ryan slowly backed away.
May you like
Emily locked eyes with him.
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