Guest lists.
Slowly, without realizing it, Emma and I stopped having our Saturday mornings.
One day, I noticed our matching bracelets were missing.
“Emma, have you seen them?”
She barely looked up.
“It’s okay, Mommy. We don’t need them anymore.”
The sentence bothered me.
But before I could ask why, my phone rang.
The florist needed an answer.
I took the call.
And I missed the warning sitting right in front of me.
PART 2 — FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE WEDDING
The morning of my wedding arrived bright and beautiful.
Almost two hundred guests filled the church.
My dress was perfect.
Flowers covered the bridal room.
Emma looked adorable in her flower-girl dress, although she insisted on carrying Bunny under one arm. Dresses
“I don’t want him to miss the wedding,” she explained.
Five minutes before I was supposed to walk down the aisle, everyone left the bridal room so I could have a moment alone.
Then Emma slipped inside.
Her flower crown was crooked, and she was clutching Bunny tightly.
“Mommy, I need to tell you something.”
I smiled.
“Can it wait until after the ceremony?”
She shook her head immediately.
“No. Please.”
Something in her voice made me kneel in front of her.
“What is it?”
She turned Bunny over.
“Look inside him.”
Under the faded ribbon around Bunny’s neck was a tiny opening I had never noticed.
“I made him a pocket,” Emma whispered.
I reached inside.
My fingers touched something hard.
When I pulled it out, my breath caught.
It was our missing bracelet. Bracelets
Pink, yellow, and blue beads.
Two words across the center:
MOM + ME.
“Why did you hide this?”
Emma lowered her eyes.
“Matthew said we wouldn’t need matching bracelets after today.”
Everything inside me went silent.
“What exactly did he say?”
“That big girls shouldn’t wear baby bracelets.”
I kept my voice steady.
“Anything else?”
Emma nodded.
“He said after you married him, you and Matthew would be the real family.”
My stomach tightened.
“He said families change.” Family
“How?”
