“Hmm.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
“Mom!”
“I’m thinking.”
“About what?”
“Whether I should allow you to attend.”
Her mouth fell open.
“You’re joking.”
I smiled.
“Of course I’m joking.”
She threw a dish towel at me.
That evening, we sat together and talked about everything.
What time she needed to be home.
Who would be driving.
Where they were going afterward.
Whether an adult would be present.
The usual questions mothers ask when their daughters go somewhere important.
But underneath all those practical conversations was something else.
I wanted to protect her.
Not because I thought Iris was incapable of making decisions.
She wasn’t.
She was sixteen and becoming increasingly independent.
But I knew something she didn’t.
I knew that happiness could disappear in an instant.
I knew what secrets could do to a family.
And I knew what it meant to carry something painful for years because you were afraid the truth would hurt someone you loved.
That was the reason I had spent so much of Iris’s life keeping one particular secret.
A secret I had convinced myself was protecting her.
A secret I would soon discover was doing exactly the opposite.
The Night Everything Seemed Perfect
Prom night finally arrived.
Iris had spent nearly two hours getting ready.
She came downstairs wearing a dress she’d chosen weeks earlier.
I stopped halfway through the living room when I saw her.
For a moment, I didn’t see the little girl who used to climb into my bed during thunderstorms.
I saw a young woman.
Beautiful.
Confident.
Excited.
And completely unaware that her life was about to change.
“Oh, sweetheart,” I whispered.
Her smile softened.
“Do I look okay?”
I laughed.
“Okay?”
She spun around.
“Mom!”
“You look incredible.”
She hugged me.
I held on longer than usual.
She didn’t notice.
Or maybe she did.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“You’re acting weird.”
“I’m your mother. I’m allowed to act weird.”
She laughed.
Then the doorbell rang.
Ryan had arrived.
I opened the door.
He was dressed in a dark suit, holding flowers.
“Mrs. Bennett.”
“Ryan.”
“Thank you for letting me take Iris.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“That’s a dangerous sentence.”
