I kept trying to make everybody fit into the ceremony, and I forgot to ask myself who I actually wanted beside me.”
I couldn’t speak for a moment.
“And?”
“I want my dad.”
That was all.
No grand speech.
No dramatic declaration.
Just four words I had needed to hear.
I agreed.
Aunt Diane remained part of the ceremony in another role, and Derek’s father did too.
No one had to be humiliated to restore my place.
The rehearsal dinner changed as well.
Amanda called personally and invited me.
I went.
I won’t pretend it was comfortable.
Derek was polite but distant.
His father shook my hand and avoided discussing the previous plan.
Aunt Diane hugged me longer than usual and quietly said she had assumed I already knew about the aisle change.
That hurt in a different way, but it also confirmed something important.
People had not been conspiring against me.
They had simply accepted a decision Amanda and Derek made, assuming the difficult conversation had already happened.
It hadn’t.
That distinction mattered.
At dinner, I didn’t make a speech about what happened.
I didn’t embarrass Amanda.
I didn’t mention money.
When she came over to my chair, she rested her hand on my shoulder and asked, “You okay?”
I looked around the table.
Then I looked at her.
“I’m here.”
She nodded.
“You are.”
On the wedding day, Riverside Gardens looked exactly the way Amanda had imagined it.
Sunlight filtered through the glass conservatory.
Wisteria hung above the walkway.
The marble fountain reflected moving patches of light across the floor.
For a moment, I understood why she had wanted the place so badly.
Catherine would have loved it.
Just before the ceremony, Amanda found me waiting near the entrance.
She was wearing her dress, hands trembling slightly around her bouquet.
“Dad?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m nervous.”
I smiled.
“Your mother would tell you that means you understand it matters.”
Amanda laughed through sudden tears.
“She would say that.”
Then she looked down at my shoes.
“And she’d tell you not to step on my dress.”
I laughed too.
That nearly broke me.
Years earlier, Catherine had joked about exactly that.
Amanda remembered.
The music began.
Amanda slipped her arm through mine.
We started walking.
