Chapter 2 - The Echoes of Alder House
By 9:00 PM, I was sitting in the front passenger seat of my father’s SUV.
Dad had stayed out of the exam room while Mom was inside, but when he walked me to the car, his face was heavy, aged by ten years in a single afternoon. He drove in silence down the highway toward their house in the suburbs of Lakewood, Colorado.
"You don't have to stay at the house if you don't want to, Tess," Dad said quietly as we stopped at a red light.
I glanced at him. "Where else would I go? My apartment has two flights of stairs, Dad. I can't even carry a glass of water right now."
He let out a long, ragged sigh. "I know. I'm sorry. I just... your mother and Lena are there."
"Did Caleb go back to Denver?" I asked.
Dad nodded. "He packed his suits, paid the venue coordinator for the cleanup fees out of his personal account, and drove away. He told your mother on the way out that he needed time away from the entire family."
A heavy silence settled in the car again.
When we pulled into the driveway of my parents' sprawling ranch-style home, the house was ablaze with light. Lena’s white convertible was parked crookedly across the grass near the front porch.
As soon as Dad unlocked the front door, the sound of raised voices hit us.
Lena was standing in the center of the living room, still wearing her lace bridal robe, holding a glass of white wine. Her eyes were swollen and red, her hair a tangled nest around her shoulders. Sophia, her maid of honor, was sitting on the sofa looking deeply uncomfortable, holding her phone.
When Lena saw me walk in—wrapped in the grey sweatshirt, my arm bound tightly in the black sling—she didn't run over to check on me.
She slammed her wine glass down on the side table, spilling liquid over my mother's mahogany desk.
"Are you happy now, Tessa?" Lena screamed.
I stopped near the entryway, leaning against the doorframe for support. "What?"
"Are you happy?!" she repeated, marching toward me, her manicured finger pointing directly at my face. "Caleb blocked my number! He blocked my Instagram! He told his mother that the wedding is off indefinitely! All because you had to lay on the stone terrace like a dying swan and make a massive production out of dropping into three feet of water!"
I stared at her, genuinely stunned by the sheer scale of her delusion. "Lena, I have to have emergency surgery on Tuesday. My labrum is detached."
"Oh, please!" Lena rolled her eyes, turning back toward Sophia. "You probably told the doctor to say that so everyone would feel sorry for you! You’ve been complaining about that shoulder for two months! You ruined my pictures with that ugly brace, and then you ruined my entire wedding!"
"Lena, that's enough!" Dad snapped, stepping between us. "Your sister is severely injured!"
"She's exaggerating, Dad!" Lena yelled, her voice breaking into a high-pitched, hysterical shriek. "She always does this! Ever since we were kids! Every time I have something special—my graduation, my twenty-first birthday, my engagement party—Tessa has to have some crisis that steals all the attention!"
Sophia stood up from the couch, her face pale. "Lena... stop. You're making this worse."
"No, Sophia!" Lena turned on her maid of honor. "You're the one who started this! Why did you tell Caleb what I said?!"
Sophia looked at me, her eyes filled with genuine remorse. "Tessa, I'm so sorry. I didn't know he was standing right behind us near the archway when Lena spoke to me."
"What did she say to you, Sophia?" I asked, my voice deadly quiet. "Tell me."
"Don't you dare, Sophia!" Lena threatened.
Sophia ignored Lena, looking straight at me. "When you fell into the pool, Lena laughed and whispered to me, 'At least now she won't be able to hold her arm up in the group photos.' She knew you couldn't brace yourself, Tessa. She did it on purpose so you wouldn't ruin her aesthetic."
The room went dead, terrifyingly silent.
Even my father froze, turning his head slowly to look at Lena.
Lena’s face flushed a deep, ugly red. She looked from Sophia to me, her breath coming in ragged hitches. "I was joking! It was a joke!"
"You sacrificed my physical health for a photo?" I whispered.
"It was supposed to be funny!" Lena shouted, her tears overflowing now, but they weren't tears of remorse—they were tears of rage that her narrative had crumbled. "You were being so pathetic all morning, whining about your arm! I wanted you to lighten up! How was I supposed to know you were going to break like a glass doll?!"
I looked at my sister—the girl I had defended at school, the sister whose secrets I had kept, the person I had spent thirty-four years prioritizing over myself.
"You are sick, Lena," I said, every word dripping with cold, absolute truth. "You are a selfish, cruel person. And Caleb didn't leave because of my shoulder. He left because he finally saw who he was about to marry."
Lena gasped, raising her hand as if to slap me.
"Touch her," Dad said, his voice dropping into a register I had never heard in my entire life, "and you will pack your bags and leave this house tonight, Lena."
Lena dropped her hand, staring at our father in absolute disbelief. "Dad? You're taking her side?"
"There are no sides here, Lena!" Dad yelled, his eyes blazing. "You assaulted your sister! You destroyed your own wedding! Look at yourself!"
Mom hurried out of the kitchen, holding a fresh box of tissues, stepping in front of Lena. "Arthur, don't yell at her! She’s in shock!"
"She isn't in shock, Karen! She’s monstrous!" Dad turned to me, putting a gentle hand on my left shoulder. "Tess, come on. I set up the guest room downstairs for you. You don't have to listen to this anymore."
As Dad guided me down the hallway toward the quiet guest bedroom, I heard Lena sobbing hysterically behind us, while my mother whispered comforting lies into her ear.
May you like
I lay down on the guest bed, staring up at the dark ceiling, my shoulder throbbing in rhythm with my heartbeat.
I knew then that the wedding wasn't the only thing that had ended at Alder House. My family was fracturing, and no amount of keeping the peace was ever going to put it back together.