Chapter 13 - Delaney Went Back To The Wedding Tent
The estate hosted a charity event eighteen months later.
Same property.
Same large white tent.
Different event.
Keaton was nervous about bringing Delaney.
She was the one who asked to go.
When we entered, she stared at the dance floor.
The chair was obviously long gone.
Nothing looked dramatic.
That seemed to bother her at first.
“I thought it would feel different.”
“How?”
“Bigger.”
Trauma often enlarges locations.
Then reality shrinks them again.
We walked toward the spot where Keaton had fallen.
Delaney stood there.
No tears.
No anger.
Just thinking.
Then she said:
“I hate that people probably remember me as the girl who punched her dad.”
I answered carefully.
“Some might.”
She looked at me.
“What do you remember?”
“That you were angry because adults weren’t fixing something.”
“That sounds nice.”
“It isn’t meant to.”
She smiled faintly.
“What else?”
“I remember telling you to let him go.”
“You yelled.”
“You were holding your father by his jacket.”
“Fair.”
Then I said:
“But mostly I remember that afterward, you started letting adults do the adult work.”
She nodded.
That was the part I wanted her to keep.
Not the punch.
The shift afterward.
She did not have to save Marissa.
May you like
That was our job.
Finally.
