He Chose Her Over Me So I Chose Myself Chapter 26
The emergency meeting was scheduled for the following afternoon.
I didn’t go back to Boston. I just turned on the projector in my studio and joined remotely.
On the other side of the screen, my adoptive parents sat in the center of the long table. Camille sat at my mother’s side. Grant was two seats away.
The meeting had barely begun when my adoptive mother’s eyes reddened.
“June has always been sensitive. Since she left home, we’ve respected her choices. This year, the foundation simply needed some old material that reflected family care. I never imagined she would interpret one careless oversight as malice.”
When she finished, I turned on screen sharing.
The first image was the delivery confirmation for the lawyer’s notice.
The second was the publication date of the new page.
The third was the foundation video they had used for over twenty years.
Onscreen, my mother handed lines to the child version of me. Off camera, someone was saying, “Smile more gratefully.”
This wasn’t some new secret I had uncovered.
It was the same promotional material they had once been proudest of.
I stopped the progress bar on the image of my adult self.
“On the morning of my wedding, I revoked my authorization. Yesterday, the foundation republished it.”
One board member asked, “Mrs. Mercer, were you aware, before this page went live, that the authorization had been revoked?”