We were all staying at the Roosevelt for three nights during the wedding festivities. After the rehearsal dinner, five of us—Penny, Stewart, Emily, Luke, and me—went to the hotel bar to have another drink that turned into several. We laughed as Penny and Emily begged the piano player to play “Sweet Caroline” and “Tiny Dancer” and we all sang along off-key. Stewart was the most cheerful I’d ever seen him, the top buttons of his shirt undone. He and Luke—both guy’s guys—got along well. Stewart’s upbringing had been a bit hardscrabble, and this, I’d learned upon meeting his very sweet family, was the reason for his drive and discipline. His family was proud of him and they adored Penny, the smart, pretty girl from the nice, middle-class family. I got the sense they were a little overwhelmed by the wedding, even though it wasn’t especially lavish.

That night, Stewart stayed in another room—holding to tradition—and Emily and I stayed over in the bridal suite with Penny, poring over the old photo albums that Emily had brought along with her. Emily and I had never spoken about the pregnancy after our one strange conversation, but no one wanted to think of that now. That night, it felt like we’d gone back to a time before Penny lied about strange things or pilfered rent checks. We were girls again.

The next day my father would walk Penny down the aisle with tears in his eyes, a cousin’s toddler would make everyone laugh when she hammed it up as the flower girl, the nurses from Penny’s office would get roaring drunk and tackle one another to catch the bouquet, and Penny and Stewart would dance their first dance to Billie Holiday’s “I’m Yours”—which had been my grandparents’ song—making everyone cry. The next day, as we watched her, it was impossible to believe that everything was not going to get better from here. Seeing her get married, it was as though my parents and I let out a collective sigh of relief, a breath we’d been holding for years. This wedding would fix things.

But the night before belonged to Penny and Emily and me—the three sisters. Whatever came next, that night was real. I hold on to it because, in some sense, I would never see my sister again.

Liz Finds a Wonder Drug