Chapter 15 - Emma’s First Birthday
Emma turned one in the pale-yellow room.
Melissa refused an enormous party.
“Thirty people maximum.”
Forty-seven came.
Ryan pretended this was not his fault.
It was entirely his fault.
Emma wore a yellow dress.
Cake ended up everywhere.
On the floor.
On Ryan.
On Daniel.
At one point, Emma grabbed a handful of frosting and slapped it onto Daniel’s shirt.
He stared at her.
“She’s violent.”
The entire room went silent.
Then Daniel smiled.
Ryan laughed first.
Then me.
Then Melissa.
The joke was dark.
Maybe inappropriate.
But Daniel had earned the right to make it.
Later, after everyone left, we sat on the back porch.
Emma slept against Ryan’s chest.
Her dress had shifted slightly.
The mark showed.
Daniel touched his own shoulder through his shirt.
“You know, for years I hated mine.”
Ryan looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Paul used to stare at it.”
Daniel’s voice became quieter.
“Like it proved something shameful.”
He looked at Emma.
“Then she arrived with one.”
“And suddenly?”
Daniel smiled.
“It looked different.”
That was the strange thing about symbols.
People decide what they mean.
Paul had looked at Daniel’s mark and seen betrayal.
Ryan looked at Emma’s and initially saw danger.
Now Daniel looked at it and saw continuity.
A family continuing despite everything designed to break it.
Melissa leaned against Ryan.
“Maybe we should stop giving the mark so much power.”
Daniel nodded.
“Probably.”
Ryan smiled.
“But then we wouldn’t have found you.”
Daniel looked away quickly.
May you like
He pretended something was in his eye.
Nobody believed him.
