At my cousin’s wedding reception, we were seated having our meal when my family arrived late and started greeting everyone loudly. I was eight months pregnant and couldn’t stand up easily to greet them from my chair. My mother demanded, “Get up from that chair right now. Your sister needs to sit.” I refused. “She’s only two months pregnant. I’m eight months.” I stayed seated. My father walked over and kicked my chair hard from behind, making me fall backwards.

Rachel, Matthew’s sister, leaned closer beside me, her voice lowered with gentle concern. “They are heading directly toward this table, and they do not appear particularly cheerful tonight.” I offered a faint smile, though my stomach tightened with something unrelated to pregnancy. “They rarely are when expectations are not immediately satisfied,” I replied carefully, my tone restrained by habit rather than politeness.

My mother reached us first, her posture flawless, her smile perfectly constructed yet strangely devoid of warmth. “There you are,” she said smoothly, as if I had intentionally concealed myself within a crowded ballroom. “We have been searching everywhere, though clearly you were content remaining unnoticed.”

“I am exactly where the seating chart placed us,” I answered gently, gesturing toward the name card still positioned beside my plate. My father stood silently behind her, arms folded, observing without expression, his quiet presence always amplifying my mother’s authority rather than softening it. Kelsey hovered slightly behind them, her gaze drifting between my stomach and the vacant chairs surrounding our table.