Lisa pointed. I turned as far as my dress allowed.
Megan rushed forward and lifted part of the train.
My brain didn’t understand what I was seeing at first.
Tiny fabric suitcases had been sewn all over the train. Eight of them. The largest suitcase was attached to the very end.
“Mom… why does that suitcase have my name on it?”
A tag hung from it.
LISA.
For several seconds, I couldn’t breathe.
Then I looked at Barbara.
“What did you do?”
She was standing near the front row, looking completely calm.
Tiny fabric suitcases had been sewn all over the train.
“I simply made the dress honest.”
I heard someone whisper, “Oh my God.”
Barbara continued.
“My son isn’t getting only a wife, is he? Now everyone can see the baggage you’re dragging into this marriage for him to carry.”
I heard Lisa make a small sound beside me.
I turned. Her face had crumpled.
“I simply made the dress honest.”
“Am I baggage?”
Everything inside me went hot.
I grabbed her hand. “No, sweetheart. Absolutely not.”
I turned to Brandon. He was staring at the suitcases.
Then he turned to his mother and looked at her… I’d never seen that expression on his face before. I didn’t understand what it meant.
“Am I baggage?”
Brandon turned to the pastor.
“Please give me five minutes.”
Then he walked away, straight down the aisle and out the main entrance.
I stared after him.
My first thought was that he needed air. My second thought was much darker.
What if Barbara had finally gotten to him?
He walked away, straight down the aisle and out the main entrance.
I hated myself for thinking it.
Brandon had spent years proving he loved Lisa, but humiliation does strange things to people.
And Barbara looked pleased.
She took one slow breath and adjusted her jacket.
Five minutes later, the doors opened.
What if Barbara had finally gotten to him?
Brandon walked back inside carrying Lisa’s small purple overnight suitcase. My heart stopped.
Lisa stared at it. “That’s mine.”
Barbara saw it too, and her little smirk widened into a proud grin.
“I’m glad you’ve finally come to your senses.”
Brandon didn’t answer.
He walked down the aisle and placed the suitcase on the floor in front of Lisa.
My heart stopped.
Then he reached for the zipper, and Barbara’s smile vanished.
“Brandon.”
He ignored her.
“Brandon, don’t open that here.”
She seemed frightened. The color had drained from her face. I remembered Lisa making me promise not to check her suitcase, and for the first time, I wondered what was hidden in there.
“Brandon, don’t open that here.”
“There’s something you need to see before you say another word, Mom.”
Brandon unzipped the suitcase.
Inside were Lisa’s pajamas, a stuffed rabbit, two shirts, socks, and a pair of glittery sandals. He moved the clothes aside.
Underneath was a handmade picture frame. Bright blue cardboard. Gold glitter. Plastic jewels glued unevenly around the edges.
“There’s something you need to see.”
Inside was a picture of Brandon and Lisa at a soccer game.
Crooked craft letters across the top read: MY NEW DAD & ME.
I covered my mouth.
“It was supposed to be your wedding present,” Lisa said.
Brandon lifted it carefully. “It’s perfect. But where’s the drawing, sweetheart?”
Lisa went still. “Dad Brandon, no.”
MY NEW DAD & ME.
He’d just lifted a folded sheet of construction paper from the suitcase, but Lisa’s words made him freeze.
“What is it?”
She stared at the paper, and her eyes filled with tears.
“Gran-Barbara,” she corrected herself, “she told me to throw it away.”
“You… showed it to her already?”
Lisa sobbed.
“She told me to throw it away.”
Brandon looked at his mother, then unfolded it.
Four stick figures stood in a crooked row holding hands. Lisa had labeled them in purple marker.
MOM. DAD. ME. GRANDMA.
Except GRANDMA had been crossed out with two hard lines in blue ink. Beside it, in an adult’s handwriting, was one word.
Brandon looked at his mother, then unfolded it.
NO.
Brandon stared at the paper for a long time before holding it up in front of Barbara.
“Did you do this?”
Barbara lifted her chin. “Yes. I corrected it. I’m not her grandmother, and I never will be.”
Brandon straightened. He turned back to Lisa.
“Is this why you asked me about the baby?”
GRANDMA had been crossed out
My stomach dropped.
Three days earlier, Lisa had asked him if he would still love her after we had a baby. He’d told me about it because neither of us understood where the question had come from.
Lisa had refused to explain.
Now she nodded. “Barbara said only your real children would be her grandchildren, that they’re the ones that matter.”
“You said WHAT?” Brandon rounded on his mother.
Lisa had refused to explain.
Barbara crossed her arms.
“She’s being overdramatic. I just told her the truth. Brandon will have children of his own someday. Those children will carry his blood. They’ll be my grandchildren. There is a difference.”
Brandon looked down at the drawing in his hand, then at the tiny suitcases sewn across my train.
“You humiliated my fiancée and a seven-year-old child in front of everyone I love.”
“I was trying to stop you from making a decision without understanding the consequences.”
“She’s being overdramatic. I just told her the truth.”
“What consequences?”
Barbara gestured toward Lisa. “This.”
Lisa flinched.
Something in Brandon’s face settled. That was the moment this stopped being about my wedding dress.
He handed me the frame and the drawing, then knelt in front of Lisa.
“Do you remember what you asked me when I proposed to your mom?”
Something in Brandon’s face settled.
Lisa nodded.
“I-I asked…” she sniffed, “if I got a dad, too.”
“And what did I tell you?”
“If you’ll have me.”
