“The world won’t always adjust.”
“This is not the world,” I said. “This is her family.”
Days after we returned, I invited everyone to dinner. Nora wore a sleeveless yellow dress. The evening stayed peaceful until dessert.
Vanessa placed her phone on the table and enlarged a beach photograph.
“I can’t post a single picture. Those stains are in every shot.”
Nora froze.
“Put the phone away.”
“If she knows she looks like that, why wear something revealing?” Vanessa asked. “People will wonder what’s wrong with her.”
A sob escaped Nora.
“You’re humiliating my child in her own home.”
“She could have covered up.”
I revealed that Vanessa had cropped Nora from a photograph during the trip. Nora turned to me.
“You knew?”
“I found out in Florida.”
“And you still invited her?”
I had hoped to handle it quietly, but Nora said, “She’s hurting me again.”
