The same narrow seam.
The same tiny blue stitches my mother left wherever her hands had repaired something.
Dad looked at me.
“Your mother saved that dress for you.”
My throat tightened.
“What?”
“She used to say she hoped you might wear it someday.
Not because she expected you to have the same style.
She just wanted you to have the choice.”
He turned back to Alexis.
“You knew that.”
Alexis shook her head too quickly.
“No.
You never told me that.”
“I told you exactly what was in that trunk.
I told you why it stayed locked.”
“I was trying to include her mother in the night.”
“Then why did you cover the dress?”
Alexis looked down at the mustard panels.
The cheap fabric was attached with long black stitches that stood out against the original gold lining.
One side sagged lower than the other.
The lace collar had been fastened so tightly that it concealed the dress’s original neckline.
“I thought it looked dated,” she said.
“So you improved it?” Dad asked.
“Yes.”
Brianna made another small sound.
This time, everyone heard it.
Dad looked at her again.
“What?”
Brianna’s face had gone pale.
“Nothing.”
“Say it.”
She glanced at me, then at the watching crowd.
“Mom said the point was to make sure no one looked at her instead of me.”
Alexis’s expression hardened.
“You are confused.”
“No, I’m not.” Brianna’s voice cracked.
“You said she always acts like she’s better than us because everyone feels sorry about her mom.
You said tonight was supposed to be mine.”
The silence around us deepened.
Alexis reached for Brianna’s arm, but Brianna stepped away.
Dad stared at Alexis as if he no longer recognized her.
“You took my late wife’s dress,” he said.
“You covered it in scraps, gave it to my daughter as a joke, and used the money I gave you to buy Brianna that gown.”
“I bought supplies.”
“How much?”
“That isn’t the issue.”
“It is now.”
Alexis lifted her chin.
“You’re humiliating me in front of children.”
I almost laughed at the word humiliating.
Twenty minutes earlier, she had been willing to let an entire gym laugh at me.
Now that people were looking at her, public cruelty had suddenly become unacceptable.
Dad held out his hand.
“Give me your phone.”
“No.”
