She wanted professional photographs with him.
Then she wanted to attend the rehearsal dinner.
Ryan told her he wasn’t ready.
She contacted Emma anyway.
Then David.
Then one of Ryan’s cousins.
Finally, Ryan told her not to come to the wedding.
“I was trying to be part of your life,” she said.
“You were trying to skip 20 years and act like none of it happened.”
“I’m your mother.”
“You’re my biological mother.”
Her face crumpled.
Then she turned to me.
“You’re a mother. Tell him.”
That caught me off guard.
“Tell him what?”
“That people make mistakes. That you don’t throw away your mother because she got things wrong.”
I looked at her for a long moment.
It didn’t.
“I understand why missing this hurts,” I said.
Her expression brightened slightly.
“But being his mother doesn’t give you the right to force your way into his life.”
