Chapter 3 - What the Party Actually FixedLater that afternoon, Renee called me directly. "Maddie told one friend exactly why Zoe wasn't invited. It's genuinely spreading around now." "What are you actually going to do about it?" "I was thinking about simply canceling the whole party." I heard Maddie in the background. "Mom, no. You already made me lose Zoe over this
That evening, Zoe came downstairs wearing the pale-pink dress after all, holding the scrapbook tight against her chest. "I'm still genuinely angry," she said. "You're allowed to be angry, and still go anyway." She nodded once, firmly. "That's exactly what I'm doing."
At the party, Maddie came outside before we'd even reached the front doors. She looked at Zoe and immediately started crying. "I'm so sorry." Zoe stayed exactly where she was. "You let me genuinely believe you hated me." "I know I did." "Why would you do that?" Maddie wiped at her own cheeks. "Because everything got genuinely ugly, and I didn't know how to explain any of it without telling you things that genuinely weren't mine to tell in the first place." Zoe's voice shook. "You could have simply told me it wasn't actually about me at all." "I should have done that." "I should have," Maddie repeated.
Maddie looked down at the ground. "After my parents separated, my mom was scared all the time. Bills, the car, absolutely everything. Your dad helped us out, and for a while, I actually stopped feeling like everything might collapse entirely." Zoe's face softened slightly. "He made me genuinely feel like I had someone genuinely in my corner," Maddie added. "Then Mom stopped taking his advice, and suddenly the help just disappeared too, all at once." She looked at Zoe directly. "I hated what he did to us. And I hated that I still felt genuinely grateful for what he'd done before all that."
Zoe's eyes filled with tears. "You should have told me the truth." "I know." "No, Maddie, I mean really told me everything. I would have been mad. I would have cried about it. But I never would have blamed you for simply needing help." Maddie covered her own mouth with one hand. Zoe stepped closer to her. "And I'm sorry too, honestly." Maddie blinked hard. "For what, exactly?" "For nearly deciding your mom had used my dad somehow. For making this entirely about who owed who, before I even understood how genuinely scared you both actually were." Maddie shook her head. "You didn't know any of that." "I still thought it, though."
For a second, neither of them said another word. Then Zoe handed her the scrapbook. Maddie opened it to the very first page, where the two of them sat at five years old, both missing their front teeth. "I missed you," Maddie whispered. "I missed you too." "Can we actually fix this?" Zoe looked at her steadily. "Not tonight." Maddie's face fell instantly. Zoe took her hand instead. "Tonight, we simply start." They walked back inside together.
Renee came outside a minute later. "I'm genuinely sorry, Diane." "I know you are." "Are you heading home now?" I looked toward my own car. For seventeen years, I'd confused keeping the peace with actually protecting my family. I genuinely wasn't doing that anymore. "No," I said. "Where are you going, then?" "Somewhere I can actually think clearly, without anyone else telling me what exactly I should forgive."
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For once in a very long while, I didn't need Derek's explanation, or Renee's guilt, or anybody else's answer at all. I got into my car. Whatever happened next, I genuinely wouldn't be afraid to keep asking the hard questions anymore.
— END —
