“Let us all just settle down and enjoy this beautiful meal that Sienna has prepared for us,” my mother said while she smiled at her plate. She spoke as if my humiliation were merely a small hiccup in an otherwise perfect evening.
That was the moment when I felt something inside of me grow very cold and very still. It was not a feeling of rage but rather a profound sense of clarity that I had never experienced before.
I slowly set my wine glass down on the table without taking a single sip of the expensive vintage Sienna had bragged about earlier. I stood up and walked toward the entryway where my coat was hanging in the closet.
“Joanna, where are you going before we have even served the dessert?” Paige asked with a look of genuine confusion. Uncle Howard let out another laugh and remarked that I was probably going home to check my email.
I did not offer a response as I pulled my keys from my purse and opened the heavy front door. The cool night air hit my face and carried the scent of rain and damp pine needles from the woods behind the house.