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The second she saw my mother, Aunt Ava slipped right back into that untouchable air of hers.
"Well, well, sister-in-law, perfect timing. Come see the fine daughter you raised."
"Today of all days, my daughter's big day, and she's got sticky fingers. She stole the hardware Keith's family gave to Tabitha. Three hundred thousand dollars' worth!"
My mother went white with fright, waving her hands, scrambling to explain.
"That's impossible, that's impossible. My Doreen is a good girl, she'd never do something like that..."
Before she could finish, Aunt Ava cut her off with a cold sneer.
"Impossible? All these people heard it. She admitted it herself just now!"
My mother turned to look at me, disbelief all over her face.
All my life I could stand up to anyone's mockery and doubt, but the one thing I could never bear was the disappointment in my mother's eyes.
Facing that look, I forced the words out.
"I did admit it just now, but..."
Before I could finish, Aunt Ava's voice cut across mine again.
"You hear that? We're not framing her. She admitted it herself. So, sister-in-law, tell us how you plan to handle this."
"My brother had rotten luck, marrying a husband-killer like you. Went to his grave young. And the daughter you raised turns out to be a thief."
"Ha. I never should have let the two of you come today. You've dragged the Summers name right through the mud!"
My mother's eyes brimmed with tears, her lips moving as she tried to explain.
But since I'd said it with my own mouth, all she could do was wave a helpless hand, swallowing the humiliation without a single word of defense.
The year I was eleven, my father died of illness. My mother never remarried. She held this family together alone.
But from that day on, she and I were nothing but cold looks in the eyes of these relatives.
Fifteen years have passed. I've made something of myself, put down roots in Seaford City.
I came back this time to bring my mother to Seaford City to live with me.
It just happened to fall on Tabitha's wedding, and when my mother asked, I came with her to the wedding anyway.
All these years, no matter the family gathering or whoever's big occasion, they always called on my mother.
Not because they treated her as family. They just wanted her as free labor.
And even so, she came every single time, answering every unreasonable demand.
She said it was only at moments like these that she felt she was still a Summers, still my father's wife.
Aunt Ava crossed her arms and started up again.
"Wasn't Doreen off working some job in Seaford City? No wonder she came running back so eager for Tabitha's wedding. So this was the plan all along."
"Don't tell me you couldn't make it in Seaford City anymore and figured you'd scrape a little something off my daughter's wedding?"
"Trash is trash. The kind that'll never amount to anything, not in a whole lifetime!"
The murmuring grew louder, the looks at my mother and me more contemptuous by the second.
My mother pressed her palms together and pleaded.
"I'll pay, I'll pay for sure. Whatever it costs, I'll pay it. Ava, please, that's enough."
"The child must have had it so hard on her own in Seaford City. She's a good girl. She'd only do something like this if she were pushed to it with no other way out."
"She's young, she doesn't know better. Let me pay for her, all right? I'm begging you. Let Doreen off just this once."
Watching my mother beg like that, so small, I couldn't stop the sting rising in my nose.
I stepped in front of her, keeping her behind me.
"Mom, let me handle this. Trust me."
With that, I didn't look at any of them. I just took out my phone and dialed the police again.
"Hello, I'm at the ground-floor banquet hall of the Seacrest Grand Hotel."
"Please send officers as soon as you can. There's been a theft here worth three hundred thousand dollars."
