I laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“I hadn’t spoken to Eli.”
“I know.
Apparently he watched the video at like three in the morning because one of his groomsmen sent it to him.
He packed a bag and left the suite.
Clara’s losing her mind.”
After I hung up, the first voicemail from my mother arrived.
Her voice was trembling, but not with remorse.
“Maya, call me immediately.
This has gone far enough.”
Then Clara called.
Then my father.
Then Clara again.
I let the phone ring.
Around noon, Eli called.
I answered that one.
He sounded exhausted.
“Maya, I owe you an apology.”
I said nothing.
“I didn’t know,” he said.
“Not really.
I knew they favored Clara, but I didn’t know it was like that.
And when Clara laughed…” He stopped for a second.
“I can’t explain to you what that did to me.
I looked at her and realized I had married someone who could enjoy that.”
He asked if I was okay.
It was such a small question, but it almost undid me.
I told him I would be.
Then he said something I will never forget.
“No decent person watched that happen and stayed the same.”
By evening, my parents were at my front door.
Not to apologize.
To negotiate.
Mark checked the camera feed first and asked if I wanted him to send them away.
I thought about it, then said no.
I wanted to hear what they sounded like when panic finally replaced arrogance.
My mother started with tears.
“Maya, this misunderstanding has gotten out of hand.”
Misunderstanding.
My father tried reason.
“You need to call Eli and his parents and explain that people took things the wrong way.”
“Took what the wrong way?” I asked.
Helen blinked.
“The speech.”
“The speech where you told two hundred guests my birth ruined your life?”
She winced at hearing it said back.
“You know I’d been drinking.”
I looked at her steadily.
“Alcohol doesn’t invent beliefs.
It reveals them.”
Clara, who had been standing behind them in yesterday’s designer travel outfit with mascara streaked down her face, stepped forward.
“He left because of you.”
I almost admired the audacity.
“No,” I said.
“He left because of what you did.”
She started crying harder.
“You always do this.
You always make everything about you.”
