Part Five: Five Minutes Before the Ceremony
The morning of the wedding arrived warm and bright.
The church hallways were filled with footsteps, laughter, and the perfume of fresh flowers. Guests crowded into the sanctuary while someone tested the organ.
My dress fit perfectly.
The satin fell in smooth white lines around me, and my bouquet smelled of peonies and greenery.
Everyone kept telling me I looked beautiful.
I smiled for photographs and thanked them, but beneath my excitement was a nervousness I could not explain.
Emma wore a small flower-girl dress with a crown of white blossoms resting on her curls.
She insisted on carrying Bunny beneath one arm.
“He shouldn’t miss the wedding,” she said.
I kissed her cheek.
“Of course not.”
Five minutes before the ceremony, the bridesmaids and relatives stepped out of the bridal room, leaving me alone for a final moment.
I stood before the mirror, trying to steady my breathing.
Then came a soft knock.
The door opened, and Emma slipped inside.
Her flower crown had shifted sideways. Bunny was clutched against her chest.
The moment I saw her expression, I knew she had not come to ask about flowers or candy.
“Mommy,” she whispered. “I have to tell you something.”
I glanced toward the clock.
“Can it wait until after the ceremony?”
Her face tightened.
“No.”
She shook her head so firmly that the flower crown nearly fell.
“Please, Mommy.”
Something inside me became completely still.
I knelt so we were eye to eye.
“Tell me.”
Instead of answering, Emma turned Bunny over.
“There’s something inside him.”
I frowned.
“What do you mean?”
She pointed beneath the faded blue ribbon tied around the rabbit’s neck. Hidden against the seam was a small opening I had never noticed.
“I made him a pocket,” she explained. “So he could keep something safe.”
I slipped two fingers inside.
At first, I felt only stuffing.
Then my fingertips touched something firm.
I carefully pulled it out.
A small plastic bracelet rested in the palm of my hand.
Pink, yellow, and blue beads.
Crooked white letters.
MOM + ME.
For several seconds, I could not speak.
It was the bracelet Emma had made for herself more than a year earlier—the one I had believed was lost.
“Why did you hide this inside Bunny?”
Emma looked down at her shoes.
“Matthew said I wouldn’t need it after today.”
The noise from the hallway seemed to vanish.
“What did he say?”
“He said big girls shouldn’t wear baby bracelets.”
I swallowed.
“What else?”
She hesitated.
“He said after the wedding, you and him would be the real family.”
My stomach twisted.
“Emma…”
“He said I’d have my own room.”
“We already talked about your new room, sweetheart.”
“I know.”
Her voice grew smaller.
“But he said families change.”
I forced myself to remain calm.
“What kind of changes?”
She tightened her grip on Bunny.
“He said when you have another baby, we won’t have Mom and Me Days anymore.”
The room seemed to tilt around me.
Memories began returning one after another.
Emma refusing pancakes because she claimed she was not hungry.
Emma climbing down from my lap whenever Matthew entered the room.
Emma apologizing for asking me to read one more bedtime story.
Emma repeatedly asking, “Am I bothering you?”
She had not been becoming more independent.
She had been trying to occupy less space.
She had been preparing herself to be replaced.
I took her hands in mine.
“Did Matthew ever tell you that I didn’t love you?”
“No.”
“Did he ever shout at you?”
“No.”
“Did he threaten you?”
She shook her head again.
“He just said little girls have to share when their moms get married.”
“Sharing is not always bad,” I said gently.
“I know.”
Tears gathered in her eyes.
“But Bunny says sharing isn’t the same as giving someone away.”
My heart broke.
“Bunny told you that?”
She nodded with complete seriousness.
“I tell Bunny everything.”
Of course she did.
When she felt she could not speak to me, she had spoken to the one companion who never interrupted her, corrected her, or told her she was old enough to need less love.
I stared at the tiny bracelet in my palm.
Then I pushed it over my hand.
It barely fit around my wrist.
The plastic beads looked almost absurd beside the delicate jewelry and perfect white satin.
Yet nothing I wore that day felt more important.
I stood and reached for Emma’s hand.
“Come with me.”
Her eyes widened.
“Where are we going?”
“To make sure you never have to hide the truth inside Bunny again.”
