He Chose Her Over Me So I Chose Myself Chapter 21
The scissors came down, and the ribbon drifted from the doorway.
My old roommate snatched the microphone and laughingly told the story of how, the first time Eli came to pick up a glass lampshade, he was so nervous he handed me his library card instead of his bank card.
The whole room burst into laughter. Eli’s ears turned red, but he still lifted his glass and looked at me.
“To June—and to her finally keeping the light for herself.”
The glasses clinked softly together.
Eli’s brother stood in the very front, clapping so hard his palms turned red. There was no expensive champagne, no list of donors, and no one reminding me to be grateful.
And yet it was the warmest opening I had ever known.
That night, after the guests had trickled out, I was cleaning up the long table when my phone rang.
It was my adoptive father.
The moment I answered, I heard my adoptive mother crying in the background.
“The family donors are all asking about this. We raised you for all these years, and you open a studio without inviting us? What are people supposed to think of the Mercer family?”
My adoptive father took the phone, his tone cold and hard.
“Your mother hasn’t eaten all day because of you. June, you’re not a child anymore. Can’t you act with some maturity? Do you have to make all of Boston laugh at us?”
I didn’t explain.
He went silent for a moment, then finally fell back on the familiar line.
“Why can’t you be more like Camille and think about the family for once?”
Around me, the colored glass lamps cast moving light across the walls.
Eli was on a ladder, fixing a strip of crooked ribbon. He noticed me looking at him but didn’t ask any questions. He simply waited.
In the past, I would have apologized. I would have reflected. I would have exhausted myself trying to prove I wasn’t an ungrateful person.
But now, all I felt was calm.
“Mom. Dad.” I held the phone and said softly, “This is who I am.”
Then I hung up, turned the phone off, and put it in a drawer.
Eli held out his hand to me.
I walked over, took it, and stood beside him in the light that belonged to me.