He answered immediately.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“Can you talk?”
“For five minutes.”
He exhaled.
“Dad lost it after you left.”
“What does that mean?”
“He kept saying you had staged the helicopter.”
I closed my eyes.
“Of course he did.”
“Then one of the guests searched your name and found public Navy biographies. Mom started crying. Aunt Ruth apologized to an empty lawn. It was chaos.”
Despite myself, I smiled.
Grant became serious.
“He told me you humiliated him at his own anniversary.”
“I said almost nothing.”
“I know.”
A pause.
“Amelia, I should have said something earlier.”
“About what?”
“All of it. The jokes. The ‘pretending to be a sailor’ stuff. Hayes & Sons.”
I leaned back in my chair.
“Hayes & Sons is the company name.”
“No. It is Dad’s worldview.”
That surprised me.
Grant continued. “He used me as proof you made the wrong choice. I let him because it felt good being the right child.”
I said nothing.
“I am sorry.”
The apology came too easily for me to trust yet.
“Thank you.”
