I tilt my head up. He doesn’t say anything else, but I can see it in his eyes—rebels only. And in this moment, I feel it. It’s him and me, just like it’s always been, just like it would’ve continued to be if we hadn’t been forced apart.

Mom clears her throat. “First, I’d like to thank everyone for taking the time to come tonight to celebrate the engagement of our loveliest pair—Parker and Fitz. I always joke to Walt that even though there are hundreds of people in the White House on any given day, it can feel quite cold and lonely. You being here, it makes this house feel much more like a home.”

It’s hard for me not to snort. Almost everyone came because they want something.

I gulp and have to wonder if I’m any different. I’m here because I want something too.

“It’s no secret that being a mother is the most important role in my life.”

Fitz’s hand falls from my waist and he takes my hand, undoubtedly, I’m sure, to prevent me from raising it to cough bullshit into my fist.

“And also the most challenging. From the moment she was born, Parker has kept me on my toes. As a newborn, she refused to be put down. As a toddler, she ran before she could even walk. And, as a teenager”—Mom pauses—“those with grown children, I’m sure you can relate.”

I want to crawl out of my skin. I want to ask which part they relate to. Was it the conditional love guaranteed only to the well-behaved daughter who never questioned anything? Was it the arranging of kidnapping to hide me away so I wouldn’t tarnish the Montgomery name while I was struggling?

“But what I saw in my daughter, what I often grew frustrated with, is what I realized the boy next door fell in love with at some point.”

There are soft sighs in the room.

“Walt and I were talking last night about how special a love like theirs truly is—lifelong friends who grew up together and now are growing together, creating something so special that makes our small family so proud and so complete. Because at the end of the day, on the good ones and the bad, that’s what life is about—family. Family is who you turn to, who you share life’s happiest and saddest moments with—and all the bumps in the middle along the way.”

What do you know about family? I want to scream. My mother wanted nothing to do with my lows. And my happiests? She only cared when they suited her, when they helped her, when they made her look good. There are only two people in my life who were there with me for both.