Chapter 4 - EMILY HAD REWRITTEN HER OWN HISTORY
The invitation was not Charles’s idea.
That hurt Thomas most.
It was Emily’s.
Grant had objected gently.
“Shouldn’t your dad be listed?”
Emily stood at the dining table selecting paper samples.
“Which one?”
Grant frowned.
“Thomas.”
“Charles is walking me down the aisle.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
Emily rolled her eyes.
“Dad doesn’t care about this stuff.”
Grant knew Thomas well enough to doubt that.
“He’s still your father.”
Emily tapped the wording.
“Charles has been more involved in the wedding.”
That was true.
Charles attended tastings.
Vendor meetings.
Venue tours.
Thomas wrote checks.
Quietly.
Invisible support had become invisible love.
Emily did not consciously think:
I will erase my father.
She thought:
This looks cleaner.
Charles and Laura together.
Ashford family branding.
No awkward divorced-parent structure.
She even told the stationery consultant:
“My biological father is very private.”
A convenient translation.
Thomas was private.
He was also her father.
May you like
When the invitation arrived, he understood the arrangement with brutal clarity.
He had become useful enough to fund the wedding but inconvenient to print on the card.
