The heavy scent of forced white lilies always made my throat tighten, but my mother had already ordered three large arrangements for our lunch table. She did not look at the prices on the menu before she pointed her manicured finger at the leather-bound wine list.
“We must have the French import,” Margaret said, her voice a soft, breathy whisper.
She clutched her calfskin purse against her chest like a shield. Caleb sat beside me, his shoulder pressed against mine, his fingers lightly tapping his knuckles against the edge of the cherrywood table.
“Daisies would be nice for October,” I said, twisting my plain silver engagement ring. “Simple, white ones. We only need a few.”
Margaret sighed, a tiny, fluttering sound that barely carried over the low hum of the country club dining room.
“A daughter of mine will not have roadside weeds on her guest tables,” she said.
The florist, a young woman with a leather clipboard, hovered by our linen-draped sideboard. Margaret gestured for her to come closer, her diamonds catching the harsh midday light from the arched windows.
“We will do the white roses,” Margaret told her. “Three dozen for each table, with the silver-gilt urns.”
I looked down at my water glass. The cost of those urns alone would cover our rent for a month, but my parents had always lived in a world where money was a quiet, invisible current that ran through everything they did.
“Is that what you really want, Emily?” Caleb asked.
He did not look at my mother. He kept his eyes on my face, waiting for me to speak.
“It is what my mother wants,” I said.
“It is what the family requires,” Margaret corrected, her whisper sharpening.
She adjusted her grip on her purse, the leather creaking under her fingers.
“Your sister had the orchid drapes,” Margaret said, looking past us toward the manicured golf greens outside. “We must keep a certain standard.”
My sister Vanessa had always occupied the center of every room we entered. Two weeks before my own engagement lunch, I had stood in the drafty bridal suite at the Oak Creek Country Club while she prepared for her ceremony
