“No. I didn’t mean it that way.”
“But that’s what you did.”
Amanda looked at me desperately.
“Brittany, I know this sounds awful.”
“It doesn’t just sound awful.”
I opened the final page.
There was a photograph of Sophie’s pink dress lying neatly across her bed.
Beside it sat a handmade card decorated with flowers.
Inside, Sophie had drawn Amanda wearing a wedding gown.
She had drawn herself beside her aunt, holding her hand.
Across the top, in uneven letters, she’d written, “I can’t wait to see you get married!”
Sophie had made the card two weeks earlier.
She’d planned to give it to Amanda after the ceremony.
“I found her looking at this dress yesterday,” I said. “She asked whether she could wear it somewhere else since she couldn’t wear it here.”
Amanda covered her mouth.
“Does she know why?”
“Not exactly. I couldn’t bring myself to repeat what you said.”
