I looked at her for a second, honestly wondering if she had any idea who she was talking to. But my brother just stood there smiling nervously into his champagne glass like he hoped I’d laugh it off and keep the peace the way I always had growing up.
So I did.
I smiled back. Told her the flowers looked beautiful. Asked if they needed anything. Then I walked over to the banquet manager and checked the seating chart myself. Half the bride’s family had been upgraded into suites that weren’t paid for. Spa charges comped. Open bar extension approved under the wedding account without signatures.
Small things. Expensive things.
I went into the office behind the lobby and asked accounting to print every authorization tied to the Patterson wedding. My name was on all of them.
Because three months earlier, my brother had begged me to help keep the wedding afloat after her father’s construction company started missing payments.
I paid for almost everything quietly.
The ballroom music was still playing when I walked back in holding the folder.
And that’s when the bride’s mother saw my name at the top of every invoice and slowly sat back down without saying a word.