Emily had been stunned. “I did ask. I asked Mark, and he said yes.” But before the words were fully out, Mark had calmly denied it, his tone smooth as silk. “I never said anything like that. I thought she had your permission.”
Emily could still hear the disbelief in her mother’s voice that night. “You can’t lie just because you don’t like him, Emily. This is not how you behave.” Linda’s words stung, not because they were harsh, but because they were so resolute, so convinced that Emily was the one in the wrong.