Guests have booked flights.
Your parents will be humiliated.”
“My parents would be humiliated if I married someone who planned to take their gift.”
“I was not taking it.
I was building a life with you.”
“You built that life with your mother before asking me.”
Beatrice gave a cold laugh.
“Let him go, Lucas.
She will come crawling back when she realizes how lonely this house feels without a family in it.”
I looked around at the overturned cushions, open cabinets, displaced photographs, and people carrying suitcases down my stairs.
For the first time that evening, the house began to feel like mine again.
“Loneliness is not the worst thing a home can hold,” I said.
“Contempt is worse.”
The aunt who had apologized earlier stopped beside me with her bag.
“I am sorry,” she said quietly.
“I should have questioned his story.”
I nodded.
She turned to Lucas.
“You made us look like thieves.”
Another relative added, “You told us Felicity wanted the family here.”
Lucas snapped, “I was trying to avoid drama.”
“By lying to everyone?” the uncle asked.
The family unity Beatrice had used as a weapon began to fracture.
People carried boxes back outside.
Parents gathered children.
The dining room emptied one embarrassed relative at a time.
Beatrice remained beside the table.
“I will not be thrown out like a criminal.”
“Then leave like a guest whose invitation has ended,” I said.
She stared at me for several seconds.
Then she picked up the engagement ring.
Mara’s voice sharpened.
“That does not belong to you.”
Beatrice curled her fingers around it.
“My son paid for it.”
Lucas held out his hand.
“Give it to me, Mom.”
She dropped it into his palm.
He looked at the ring and then at me.
“You will regret this tomorrow.”
“Maybe,” I said.
“But I would regret marrying you for the rest of my life.”
The officers escorted him and Beatrice to the door.
At the threshold, Beatrice looked back.
“This family will never forgive you.”
I closed the door without answering.
The lock clicked.
For several minutes, I stood in the ruined quiet of the entryway.
Through the windows, I watched relatives load bags into the trucks.
Lucas argued with his mother near the driveway.
She pointed at the house repeatedly, still furious that something she had already claimed had been taken away from her.
Mara stayed beside me.
“Are you all right?”
“Not yet.”
It was the most honest answer I could give.
