So I kept going.<\/p>\n
“You were stuck-up.”<\/p>\n
“Then Mark married me,” I said. “And Miriam handed him a new story. She said I was judgmental, cold, and impossible to love.”<\/p>\n
Mark looked up. “Daphne. Not here.”<\/p>\n
“Yes, Mark. Here.”<\/p>\n
His jaw tightened. “This isn’t fair.”<\/p>\n
I almost laughed. “You mean public? Because unfair was coming home to a husband who’d already put me on trial. She lied because that’s who she is. But you believed her because it was easier than asking me for the truth.”<\/p>\n
“Daphne. Not here.”<\/p>\n
He flinched.<\/p>\n
Miriam stepped forward. “Don’t blame me because your marriage failed.”<\/p>\n
I turned to her. “I blamed myself for years. You don’t get that gift anymore.”<\/p>\n
Her face hardened.<\/p>\n
“For years, I thought Miriam stole you,” I told Mark. “Tonight, I understand something. She only opened the door. You walked through it.”<\/p>\n
“Don’t blame me because your marriage failed.”<\/p>\n
Miriam’s eyes filled with angry tears.<\/p>\n
“You’re all listening to this?” she cried. “She paid a man to stand beside her!”<\/p>\n
“Yes,” I said. “I did. I hired Norton because I was afraid to walk into this room alone. Not because I needed a man to make me valuable, but because I needed one person beside me who hadn’t already been told I was worthless. I had no idea he knew who you were.”<\/p>\n
A woman near the photo booth stood up.<\/p>\n
“She paid a man to stand beside her!”<\/p>\n
“She did it to me too,” she said. “You told everyone I cheated on my scholarship essay. I didn’t.”<\/p>\n
A man near the punch table added, “You told people I got my job because my uncle knew someone.”<\/p>\n
Mark stared at Miriam. “How much of what you told me about Daphne was true?”<\/p>\n
Miriam grabbed his sleeve. “You’re choosing her now?”<\/p>\n
I lifted the microphone. “No. He doesn’t get to choose me now.”<\/p>\n
“You’re choosing her now?”<\/p>\n
Beth, the reunion chair, stepped onto the stage and picked up the printed program.<\/p>\n
“Miriam,” she said, “you’re not giving the closing toast.”<\/p>\n
Miriam froze. “You can’t do that.”<\/p>\n
“I just did.”<\/p>\n
Beth looked at me. “Daphne, would you be willing?”<\/p>\n
I saw Norton in the crowd, giving me the room.<\/p>\n
“Yes,” I said. “I would.”<\/p>\n
I stood at the microphone and looked at the room that had once made me feel small.<\/p>\n
“You can’t do that.”<\/p>\n
Then I raised my glass of untouched punch.<\/p>\n
“To everyone who spent years believing someone else’s version of themselves,” I said, “may you finally hand the pen back to the person who lived the story.”<\/p>\n
For a second, nobody moved.<\/p>\n
Then Beth started clapping.<\/p>\n
Someone else joined.<\/p>\n
Then another person followed.<\/p>\n
Beth started clapping.<\/p>\n
Soon, applause filled the gym.<\/p>\n
Miriam grabbed her purse and left.<\/p>\n
“Mark,” she snapped. “We’re leaving.”<\/p>\n
He didn’t move.<\/p>\n
She stopped at the door and looked back at him. “Are you coming or not?”<\/p>\n
“We’re leaving.”<\/p>\n
Mark looked down at her hand, which was still gripping his sleeve. Then he gently removed it.<\/p>\n
“No,” he said quietly.<\/p>\n
Miriam’s face twisted, but no one chased her when she left.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, I walked outside.<\/p>\n
I’d almost reached the parking lot when Mark called my name.<\/p>\n
“Daphne, wait.”<\/p>\n
I stopped, but I didn’t turn around right away.<\/p>\n
I walked outside.<\/p>\n
That was new for me.<\/p>\n
Before, I would’ve turned quickly. Eagerly. Gratefully.<\/p>\n
This time, I took my time.<\/p>\n
He stood a few feet away, hands in his pockets.<\/p>\n
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was wrong.”<\/p>\n
“Yes,” I said. “You were.”<\/p>\n
“I was wrong.”<\/p>\n
He swallowed. “I forgot who you were.”<\/p>\n
“No, Mark. You let someone else tell you.”<\/p>\n
His eyes shone. “Can we talk? Five minutes?”<\/p>\n
“For years, I begged for five honest minutes from you.”<\/p>\n
“I know.”<\/p>\n
“No,” I said. “You don’t. Because if you did, you would’ve given them to me before I had to defend myself in front of strangers.”<\/p>\n
“Is there any chance?” he asked.<\/p>\n
“For what?”<\/p>\n
“Can we talk? Five minutes?”<\/p>\n
“For us.”<\/p>\n
I almost smiled. “There hasn’t been an us for a long time. There was you, me, and Miriam’s voice between us.”<\/p>\n
Behind him, Norton stepped outside with his keys.<\/p>\n
He stopped when he saw Mark. “Everything okay?”<\/p>\n
I looked at Norton. Then at Mark. Then back at the gym doors.<\/p>\n
“Yes,” I said. “I’m ready to go.”<\/p>\n
Mark stepped closer. “Daphne, please.”<\/p>\n
“There hasn’t been an us for a long time.”<\/p>\n
“No,” I said. “You don’t get my time now because the room finally stopped believing her.”<\/p>\n
Norton unlocked the car but didn’t open the door for me.<\/p>\n
I opened it myself.<\/p>\n
Before I got in, I turned to Mark one last time.<\/p>\n
“You should’ve asked me for the truth when it still mattered.”<\/p>\n
Then I got into the car.<\/p>\n
As Norton pulled out of the parking lot, I looked back at the gym.<\/p>\n
I opened it myself.<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
For 20 years, I thought that room belonged to Miriam.<\/p>\n
It had only been waiting for me to stop letting her hold the microphone.<\/p>\n
I hired someone to stand beside me for one night.<\/p>\n
But I left with the woman I should’ve stood beside all along.<\/p>\n
I left with myself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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