Love Me, Keep My Name — The Family Chat Promises

I'm not apologizing for taking the seat assigned to me. I took off my coat and laid it over a chair. On my first birthday here, you went to Sophia's jewelry launch. On my second, she broke up with a boyfriend,

and you drove six hours to bring her home. Two months ago, on my third birthday, her greyhound skipped breakfast, so you blew me off again. His face lost its color one shade at a time.

Things came up. My birthday came up too. It lasts one day. day. Luca tried to shut the whole thing off. He took a navy jewelry box from the cabinet

and slid it across the coffee table. Dinner was a mess. Consider this a make good. say a pair of diamond earrings. Sophia tugged at her sleeve without thinking and the antique sapphire bracelet on her wrist flashed beneath the lamp. Mom had shown me a photograph of that bracelet the first week I arrived. My name and date of birth were engraved inside it.

My grandmother had commissioned it when I was born, and Mom claimed she'd kept it for me through all 25 years I was Why is Sophia wearing my bracelet? Mom snapped the earring box closed. She was hospitalized after a bad asthma attack when she turned 18.

I gave it to her so she'd know she would always be a Marati daughter. Then why did you tell me it had been waiting for me?