My stepmother secretly copied my prom dress and then appeared wearing exactly the same design just to humiliate me... but what my companion did later left almost 200 people looking in shock. I was fifteen when my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Before she died, she decided to give me one last gift: my graduation dress. It was powdery pink, strapless, elegant and completely handmade by her. He finished it just eight days before he died. That dress became one of the …

Shirley smiled like she’d won something.

My father looked at the ground.

I turned to the exit, fighting tears, but my companion, Gary, took my arm.

Don’t go away, Delilah.

Those words stopped me.

Because my mother had said the same thing while making the dress.

A year earlier, Mom was sitting on the bed with powdered pink fabric spread over her lap. She was already very ill, and some days her hands were so shaking that she could barely hold a spoon.

Still, she insisted on sewing herself the little fabric flowers around the neckline.

“Mom, let me finish it,” I pleaded.

“No. The flowers are mine.

I knew I probably wouldn’t live long enough to see me wear the dress at graduation.