At the engagement dinner, my future mother in aw s…

Cordelia hugged me at the door, but the hug felt like an inspection. She held my hands and looked at my fingernails. She asked me three times during dinner what my exact job title was, as if she were trying to memorize it for a test.

She asked me how much I had paid for my condo, and when I deflected, she laughed and said that in her family, women did not have secrets from each other. Bertram barely spoke. Marigold, the older sister, watched me the way a cat watches a bird through a window.

Evangeline, the younger sister, was friendlier, but every time she opened her mouth, Cordelia interrupted her. I remember driving home that night and telling Lawrence that his mother seemed like a lot. He laughed, squeezed my hand, and said she was just protective because he was the baby of the family.

He said once she saw how much I loved him, everything would relax. I wanted to believe him. I told myself every family had its rhythms, and I was the outsider who had to learn the music.