Small ceremony.
Seventy guests.
No magazine coverage.
No six-figure floral installation.
No celebrity chef.
Adrian complained about exactly none of those omissions.
William walked with a cane and danced once with Mia.
Caroline, Adrian’s sister, gave a toast that revealed far too many childhood stories.
Priya cried before I did and denied it afterward.
Rachel brought the original photograph of Daniel and Adrian painting the community center.
We placed it on a table beside photographs of Adrian’s mother and Daniel.
Not as shadows over the day.
As part of how we had arrived there.
Before the ceremony, Mia came into the dressing room wearing a pale blue dress.
“Mommy?”
“Yes?”
“Are you happy?”
I looked at her.
Really looked.
At the child who had once embarrassed me so completely in an executive hallway that I thought my professional life was over.
The child who had noticed my loneliness before I had admitted it to myself.
