My throat tightened.
“And you don’t know what it took for me to stop explaining your absence as if it were somehow my fault.”
She paused.
“I won’t let you turn their success into a doorway back into our lives.”
Behind us, the host announced that the winners would soon meet the sponsors and judges.
A staff member approached Marianne and asked whether Chloe and Sophie could attend the official reception.
“Of course,” she replied.
Then she looked at me.
“You should leave.”
I couldn’t move.
“Please. I just want to speak to them.”
“No.”
“Marianne—”
“They have a right to decide whether they want to meet you. Not you.”
She stood and walked toward the stage.
I remained in the aisle, surrounded by people who had no idea that my entire life had just changed.
Cordelia appeared beside me.
Her face was flushed with fury.
“What did she say to you?”
