Chapter 3: Words Written Before the Accident
Matt smoothed the letter once with his palm and looked up at the room.
Then he began.
"To our daughter, on the day she marries — we are so proud of the woman you have become.
Not because of anything you achieved, but because of how you love.
You love without conditions.
You love without keeping score.
If you are reading this, then we didn't make it to this day.
But Matthew did.
And if Matthew is standing beside you, then everything we ever hoped for has already come true."
The crying spread through the room like a wave.
Matt's voice didn't break.
He kept reading, steady and slow, the way he had always done everything — without asking for anyone's permission.
"We want you to know one thing above all else.
Your brother gave up more than you will ever fully understand.
He was nineteen years old when we were gone.
He had a scholarship.
He had plans.
He had a future that was entirely his own.
He gave all of it up — without hesitation, without complaint — so that you would never spend a single night feeling alone in this world."
I pressed my hand over my mouth.
Ryan's grip on my fingers tightened.
"We asked him, before things got bad, what he wanted to do.
He said, 'I want to make sure she's okay.' That was his entire answer.
He was nineteen years old, and that was his entire answer."
Selena's husband had stopped looking at the floor.
He was staring at Matt now, his expression something I couldn't name.
Matt folded the letter once, carefully, and set it on the table beside him.
"They wrote one more line," he said.
"Just one."
The room held its breath.
"'Whoever stands beside her today — love her the way Matthew loves her.
That is the standard.
That is the only one that matters.'"
For a moment, no one moved.
Then Ryan stood up.
He didn't say anything.
He walked to Matt, put both arms around him, and held on.
Matt's hands came up slowly and gripped the back of Ryan's jacket.
The applause started somewhere in the middle of the room and built until I couldn't hear anything else.
I was crying so hard my vision had gone completely white at the edges.
And then I heard Selena's voice, cutting through the noise the way it always did.
"Well," she said to her husband, just loud enough for the table nearest her to catch it.
"It's a lovely story.
But it doesn't change what today looked like."
The woman at that nearest table turned and stared at her.
Selena picked up her champagne glass and looked away.
I saw it.
Ryan saw it.
And across the room, one other person saw it too — Ryan's aunt, Carol, who had been watching Selena all evening with an expression that had nothing to do with celebration.
Carol set her glass down very deliberately.
She reached into her handbag and pulled out her phone.
I didn't know what she was doing.
I didn't think anything of it in that moment.
May you like
I would think about it later.
I would think about it a great deal.
