Vanessa’s expression tightened.
“That is exactly the problem, Andrew, because you keep treating the past as though it deserves equal space with our future.”
“Emily is not the past.”
“I did not say she was, but she constantly brings Caroline into everything.”
Laura had quietly approached and now stood several steps behind Emily.
Vanessa folded her arms around the bouquet.
“She mentions her mother during holidays, keeps photographs everywhere, and becomes upset whenever we discuss changing the house. I have tried to be patient, but our marriage needs boundaries.”
“Those photographs belong inside Emily’s home because Caroline was her mother.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Once we have children together, I will not raise them inside a shrine to the woman you married first.”
The photographer lowered his camera.
Several nearby guests went silent.
Vanessa noticed and softened her voice.
“We can discuss this privately after the ceremony, but Emily needs to understand that your wife cannot spend her life competing with a dead woman’s daughter.”
