When I corrected her quietly, she touched my arm and smiled for the watching guests.
“Today isn’t the day to count pennies, dear.”
After the cake was cut, I noticed the gift table was empty.
The walnut card box Colin and I had chosen was gone. So were the envelopes that had been stacked beside it.
I found Gloria near the private elevator, carrying the box against the front of her white gown.
“Where are you taking that?”
She did not slow down. “Upstairs. There’s too much cash sitting around.”
“Give it to me.”
Her expression became almost maternal. “In the Barrett family, the groom’s mother counts the gifts. It keeps things honest.”
“No one discussed that tradition with me.”
Colin came up behind us. I felt relieved until he put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Let Mom handle one thing.”
“She is taking every envelope.”
“For safekeeping.”
“Then we can put the box in the hotel safe together.”
Gloria pressed the elevator button. “You have guests, Mara.”
The doors opened. She stepped inside and held my gaze as they closed.
Colin exhaled. “Please don’t turn this into a scene.”
I looked at the place where his mother had disappeared with our wedding gifts.
“I didn’t create the scene.”
Before he could answer, Denise Ward hurried toward us from table twelve. Denise had supervised me during my first year working for the school district. She now worked in mortgage-fraud compliance, and she was one of the calmest people I knew.
She did not look calm.
A younger guest followed her, holding out a phone.
At 8:47 on my wedding morning, my mother-in-law walked into the hotel ballroom wearing a white cathedral-length gown and told the photographer to move me out of her light.
