She nodded.
“Can we go home?”
“Yes.”
I called a taxi before going back for our coats.
In the ballroom, the party was collapsing in slow, embarrassed stages. Staff carried untouched cake toward the kitchens. Guests whispered as they collected bags. My mother stood near the entrance, pale and furious.
She spotted us.
“Claire. What possessed you to let Lily do that?”
I moved Lily behind me.
“She didn’t tell me about the video.”
Margaret pointed toward the banquet room.
“Your sister’s marriage could be ruined.”
“Then her husband has learned something he deserves to know.”
“Whatever Vanessa did, you could have handled it quietly.”
“I didn’t know what she’d done.”
Mother’s expression flickered. For a moment I thought she might finally ask whether Lily was all right.
Instead she looked at the flash drive in my daughter’s hand.
“You’ve caused a terrible embarrassment.”
I had listened to versions of that sentence for thirty-two years.
“Don’t speak to Lily as though she created this,” I said. “Daniel and Vanessa made choices. Lily brought evidence because she didn’t trust any adult to listen.”
Margaret looked offended.
“I would have listened.”
Lily peered from behind me.
“Grandma, you said I was too little to understand anything.”
My mother’s face changed.
“When did I say that?”
“At Aunt Vanessa’s apartment. When I asked why Dad’s car was there.”
Margaret covered her mouth.
I stared at her.
“You knew he was visiting Vanessa?”
“I knew he’d been around,” she whispered. “Vanessa said they were old friends. I didn’t know about—”
