The Twin Missing From the Family Photo novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Backdrop
Carrie's POV
My father had hired a photographer for the gala.
He was a young man with a ring light and a black backpack, and he set up in the hotel lobby at five o'clock, in front of a blue wall printed with the Mercy Foundation's logo.
My parents arrived in their evening clothes.
Mom wore champagne silk and Dad wore a tuxedo, with the hospital lanyard tucked inside the jacket.
Ivy came down the stairs in white, with her cane, and every head in the lobby turned.
I came out of the elevator in the dress I had bought in Portland, a dark green silk with a low back, and nobody turned at all.
"There she is," Mom said, taking my wrist. "We're going to do the family first. Ivy in the middle, Gordon at her left, me at her right."
"Where's Miles?" I said.
"A migraine. He's resting." She did not blink. "Carrie, you'll hold her shawl and her bag, and you'll step to the side. You're so good at the side."
The photographer looked from Ivy to me and back again.
"Sorry," he said. "Are you two in the portrait?"
"Just the three of us," Mom said, brightly.
She put Ivy's cream shawl in my arms.
It was soft and still warm, and it smelled of Ivy's shampoo.
I held it, and I thought about a restaurant bathroom and 380 photos.
Then I laid the shawl over the arm of the nearest chair.
"I'm not holding that," I said.
"Carrie."
"I'm not holding anything tonight, Mom."
My mother's smile stayed in place, though her eyes went hard.
"Don't you dare embarrass your father," she said, through her teeth.
"I'm not embarrassing him." I stepped out of the line of the camera, onto the marble. "Take the picture. You've had plenty of practice without me."
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