For four months, I kept that photo hidden. For four months, I smiled during Christmas dinner while Natalie sat next to me carving the turkey.
For four months, every time someone asked me how Eric and I were doing, I replied, “Everything’s fine.”
And now there he was, microphone in hand, announcing to the whole room something I had known for four months.
Everyone was looking at me.
They were hoping I would break down.
That she would weep inconsolably.
That I ran away from my own birthday party.
Instead, I stood up slowly.
I smoothed out my black dress.
And I walked towards her.
“Put down the microphone, Natalie.”
“No, my sister. Everyone deserves to know the truth.”
Her lip trembled, but she continued to smile.
“Eric and I love each other. We’re going to start a family. Something you’ll never be able to give him.”
A wave of sighs of astonishment swept through the room.
I felt like three hundred pairs of eyes were staring at my back. —A family— I repeated.
“Accept it,” he said. “You’ve lost.”
Then he raised his voice.
—This time, I won.
I didn’t reply.
I turned to the back table and nodded to the man in the grey suit.
Grant stood up.
He was carrying a thick red folder under his arm.
He walked forward without greeting anyone, without smiling.
Natalie’s smile began to fade.
“Who is it?” he asked.
I took the microphone from his hand.
He tried to stop him.
—He is the man who has been hiding something for four months, something you yourself are unaware of.
Grant placed the red folder on the cake table.
She opened it.
