I Paid for the Wedding, So Who Was Mother of the Bride? novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: The Balance

"I helped," I said again, and this time I stood up.

My chair scraped on the hardwood.

"I picked Hannah up at fourteen months old. I sat up with her ear infections and her nightmares and her first heartbreak. I'm not helping anyone. I'm her mother."

"Of course you are," Cynthia said gently from the far end. "Nobody doubts that."

It was said so smoothly that Cedric's mother nodded.

"I'm sorry for the confusion," I told the table. "Thank you for dinner."

Annette was already on her feet with her purse.

"The chicken was dry," she said to Cynthia on the way out. "Just so you know."

Hannah was coming up the front walk as we left.

Her face fell when she saw my coat.

"Mom."

"Go in," I said. "Eat something. We'll talk."

She went past me without another word.

In the car, Annette buckled her seat belt and looked straight ahead.

"What are we doing?" she said.

"Money," I said. "He's counting on me being polite about it."

On Monday morning I sat across from the hotel's general manager, a brisk woman in her fifties whose desk held nothing but a laptop and a plant.

I had the binder open between us.

"Mrs. Haldane," she said. "I understand there's been some confusion about the host of record."

"There hasn't been any confusion," I said. "I haven't changed anything."

She turned her laptop toward me.

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