I opened the door to find Miriam standing on the concrete landing, her heavy wool coat buttoned up to her chin.
She was wearing her double strand of pearls, her fingers resting over them as if she were trying to hold them in place against a sudden wind.
“May I come in, Eleanor?” she asked, her voice hushed.
I stood in the doorway, my hand resting on the brass knob, not moving aside to let her pass.
“I have a lot of work to finish tonight, Mother,” I said.
Miriam looked past me into the small living room, her eyes scanning the modest furniture and the boxes of files I had brought from the office.
“Your father and I have discussed the wedding guest list,” she said, her voice dropping even lower. “We feel it would be best for everyone if you did not attend the ceremony at the Regency.”
I stared at her, waiting for the explanation she did not want to give.
“Sienna is very sensitive right now, and Arthur thinks your presence would create unnecessary tension during the reception,” Miriam said.
She reached into her leather purse and pulled out a small black lacquer box, placing it on the wooden telephone table just inside my doorway.
“I brought this back from your father’s desk,” she said. “I want you to think about what is truly important to this family.”
I looked down at the black lacquer box, its polished surface catching the amber light of the hallway lamp.
“And if I decide to attend my sister’s wedding anyway?” I asked.
Miriam took a slow step back onto the landing, her expression hardening into something cold and unfamiliar.
“If you appear at the wedding, you are no longer our daughter,” she said.
I did not answer her.
I closed the heavy wooden door, turning the deadbolt until the brass mechanism snapped shut with a definitive click.
The apartment was entirely silent now, the delivery truck outside having finally driven away into the autumn dusk.
