Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
Michael continued.
“You knew exactly what you were saying.”
“I have spent two years trying to build a life with you while living with a ghost.”
“Emily is not the problem here.”
“She is always there.”
“She is Lily’s mother.”
“And she was your wife.”
Michael stared at her.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with tears.
“You still love her.”
“Yes.”
The answer came without hesitation.
Several guests shifted.
Vanessa looked wounded.
Michael continued.
“I will always love her. That does not mean I could not have loved you too.”
“That’s not enough.”
“It would have been if you loved all of me.”
“I do.”
“No. You loved the parts that did not inconvenience you.”
“That isn’t true.”
“My daughter inconvenienced you.”
Vanessa wiped at her eyes.
“I tried with Lily.”
Michael remembered the first year.
Vanessa helping Lily decorate Christmas cookies.
Vanessa attending a dance recital.
Vanessa staying up all night when Lily had the flu.
Had those moments been fake?
He did not think so.
That somehow made the truth worse.
People were rarely monsters every minute of every day.
Vanessa had done kind things.
She had also gradually come to resent a child for refusing to make herself smaller.
Michael asked, “When did this start?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“Try.”
“When we got engaged.”
The answer surprised him.
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
“You want honesty? Fine. When we were dating, I could leave and go back to my apartment. I could tell myself Lily would adjust. Then we got engaged, and suddenly every decision involved Emily.”
Michael frowned.
“That’s not true.”
“The house is the house you bought with her.”
“It’s Lily’s home.”
“The Christmas decorations were hers.”
“Some of them.”
“Her photographs are everywhere.”
“There are three.”
“There’s one in Lily’s bedroom, one in the hallway, and one on your office bookshelf.”
Michael stared.
Vanessa had counted them.
She continued.
“You celebrate Emily’s birthday.”
“We take Lily to her mother’s favorite park.”
“You visit her grave.”
“With our daughter.”
“And today your child walked into my wedding wearing Emily around her neck.”
Michael finally understood.
There was no amount of reassurance he could have given Vanessa that would have solved this.
Because Vanessa did not want a place beside the past.
She wanted the past removed.
Michael looked at the broken locket.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
“No. You told me you wanted us to create new traditions. You told me you wanted to redecorate. You never told me seeing my daughter remember her mother made you angry.”
“Because what was I supposed to say?”
“The truth.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“You would have chosen Lily.”
Michael’s answer was immediate.
“Yes.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“And that,” she whispered, “is why I didn’t tell you.”