Chapter 2

After the chest was carried away, Dad stayed where he was. His arms hung empty at his sides, his fingertips rubbing absently against the seam of his trousers as if he were still holding something.

The wedding coordinator came by again. "The bride needs to touch up her makeup."

I didn't move. I turned and went after the chest instead, and Dad followed a few steps behind. He looked like he wanted to call out to me, but held himself back and just quickened his pace to keep up.

The back of the hotel was much darker than the banquet hall. The far end of the corridor was piled with discarded cardboard boxes, spare flower stands, and a few bags of damp table linens. The air smelled like alcohol, kitchen grease, and disinfectant.

The chest hadn't been left at the edge of it all so much as dumped there. A bag of wet linens sat on the lid, water dripping down the plastic and bleeding a dark stain into the wood.

Dad practically jogged over. He crouched down, moved the linens aside, and started wiping the lid with his sleeve, bit by bit.

"It's fine, it's fine," he kept saying. "Old chest. It can take a beating."

But the clasp was already bent sideways, and one corner had been chipped open. He reached out to touch the crack, caught his finger on a splinter, and a bead of blood rose almost instantly. He stared at it for a moment, then tucked his hand behind his back.

"Dad, your hand," I said.

He smiled. "It's fine."

He went back to wiping the chest, and his sleeve was soaked through before long.

I turned to the staff member standing nearby. "Who told you to put it here?"

The staff member glanced at me, then at Elliott, and stammered. "The Chambers family said the front hall was already set up and that something like this wasn't suitable to leave out."

"Something like this?"

Nobody answered.

Elliott walked over, visibly irritated. "Sadie, the ceremony is about to start."

I pointed at the chest. "This is the hope chest my dad put together for me."

He looked at Dad, then at the chest. "I know."

"You knew, and you still let them dump it back here?"

"Nobody dumped it." His voice was tight with impatience. "It was just set aside for the moment."

Dad got to his feet immediately and stepped in front of the chest. "Sadie, don't do this. It's not damaged, really."

He was afraid I'd keep going, so he turned to Elliott before I could. "Elliott, I didn't mean anything by it. The chest is old and it's not much to look at. The back is where it belongs."

He spoke so fast he nearly bit his tongue.

Elliott's expression softened slightly, but there wasn't a trace of guilt behind it. "If it bothers you, I can replace it with a new one."

The smile froze on Dad's face. He looked down at the chest and slowly pressed his palm against the clasp.

"You don't need to replace it," he said. "It's not worth anything."

Those words landed harder than the sound of the chest hitting the doorframe.

I reached out and took his wrist. His hand was cold, and still shaking.

Claire had appeared at some point. She stood next to Elliott in a pale-colored dress, her eyes faintly rimmed with red.

"Sadie, I'm sorry. Is this because my family was given seats at the main table? Are you upset about that?" Her voice was gentle yet pitched just loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.

"If that's the case, I can move to the back. Today is yours and Elliott's wedding. I don't want you to get the wrong idea."

Elliott turned to me immediately. "Sadie, Claire didn't mean anything by it."

I didn't say a word. Dad was the one who panicked first. "No, no, nobody's getting the wrong idea. Ms. Carver, please, sit wherever you like."

Then he turned back to me and whispered, "Sadie, don't make things awkward for her."

He'd been assigned a seat by the kitchen doors and didn't bat an eye. Owen lost his place in the wedding party, and he told me not to worry about it. The chest got tossed in with the storage, and he said it wasn't worth anything.

But the thought of the Carver family feeling awkward scared him, because he was afraid of what it would mean for me in the Chambers household later.

The wedding coordinator came hurrying back with the program sheet. "Mr. Chambers, have one last look at the ceremony script."

Elliott took it. I was standing close enough to catch a line on the page, the section for thanking the parents. The names were listed clearly. The Chambers parents, Mr. and Mrs. Carver, and longtime family friend Claire Carver.

I read further down. There was no mention of Patrick Reed, my father. He was still crouched on the ground, wiping the corner of the chest, completely unaware that he'd been erased again.

I reached over and took the program sheet from Elliott's hands.

His expression went cold. "Sadie."

I pointed to the blank space and asked him, "Where's my dad's name?"