Chapter 19: The Party

Lydia's POV

Two hundred people stood on my grandmother's lawn, holding champagne.

I stopped at the top of the drive and looked at the lake house with its lights on in every window.

White tents ran down toward the water, with paper lanterns strung between them, and a string quartet played near the dock.

Pearl's hand was on my elbow.

"Remember," she said, quietly. "You don't know where you are."

"I don't know where I am."

"Good girl."

She said it without any of my mother's weight, and it was the first time I had ever liked hearing it.

Devin was behind us in a dark suit, carrying a gift bag that held a brown bottle, a printed lab page and a folder.

He had walked in as a plus-one on Pearl's arm, with a name tag that said GUEST.

"Door," he murmured, and peeled off toward it.

I watched him go.

I did not write his name on my wrist, because I did not need to.

My mother found me within a minute.

She came across the lawn in a navy dress with her arms out and her eyes already wet, and every head on the lawn turned.

"There she is," Irene said. "There's my girl."

She hugged me hard.

Her cheek was cold against mine.

"Mom?" I said, in my smallest voice. "Is this a party?"

A sound went through the nearest guests, a soft collective ache.

"It's a party for you, sweetheart," my mother said. "Everyone's here to see you."

She took my hand and walked me down the lawn, introducing me.

"You remember Mom's friend from the foundation, don't you?" she said, of one of the board women.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Do I?"

"Oh, honey," the woman said, and pressed my hand between hers.

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