I thought the worst part of my sister-in-law’s wedding would be watching my daughter realize she’d been excluded. Then my husband stopped me from confronting his sister, and his reaction made me realize he knew much more than I did.
My sister-in-law Jenna’s wedding was in a month, and everyone in my household was excited.
However, the excitement dimmed when she called me with heartbreaking news.
She said our eight-year-old daughter, Sophie, would no longer be a flower girl.
“We decided to keep the ceremony simple,” she explained.
I remember standing in my kitchen thinking of the dress in Sophie’s closet.
Sophie had picked out shoes.
She had practiced walking slowly with a little basket in our hallway.
She had asked me at least 10 times whether she was supposed to smile while throwing petals.
“But you already asked her,” I said.
“I want to be perfect.”
“She’s been excited for weeks,” I told Jenna.
She sighed. “I’m sorry. We changed some things.”
That was all she’d give me.
When I told Sophie, her face fell immediately.
“But Aunt Jenna said I could do it.”
“I know, honey.”
“Did I do something?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
“They changed the wedding plans.”
She looked down at the pink shoes we’d bought.
“Can I still wear these?”
“Of course.”
My husband, Marcus, was far less upset than I was.
“It’s Jenna’s wedding. She can make whatever changes she wants,” he said that night.
“She shouldn’t have asked Sophie in the first place if she wasn’t sure.”
“I agree.”
“Then why aren’t you angry?”
He shrugged. “What do you want me to do? Call her and fight about it?”
“I want you to act like it bothers you.”
“It does.”
It didn’t look like it did.
But Marcus and Jenna had been weird with each other for weeks already.
They had short, angry phone calls.
They no longer joked in the family group chat.
Jenna hadn’t come over in almost two months.
Every time I asked, Marcus said, “She’s just busy.”
I assumed it was about the wedding stress.
So I let it go.
Mostly because Sophie eventually stopped talking about it.
Then we arrived at the wedding.
The ceremony was at a garden venue outside town.
It was beautiful, with the theme colors blending in so well.
There were flowers everywhere.
The first thing I saw after we checked in was a little girl in a pale pink dress carrying a basket.
