From that day on, he despised my mother. And his love shifted entirely.
He skipped my graduation but drove Julie to and from school without fail, rain or shine. He forgot my birthday every year but could recite everything she'd eaten on any given day. He never had a kind word for me, yet he showered praise on every single one of her social media posts.
Now, I couldn't feel even a trace of fatherly love from him. Not a trace.
Throughout dinner, my father and Piers orbited Julie like satellites. Laughter, conversation, warmth. I sat among them like a ghost.
"Here, sweetheart, Daddy brought you something special!" He patted Julie's arm with a beaming smile. "To keep you and the baby safe!"
He reached into his pocket and produced a jade pendant on a silk cord. The surface was smooth and luminous, etched with a delicate pattern meant to ward off harm.
My entire body went rigid.
That was my mother's pendant.
Years ago, when she struggled to conceive, she had climbed to a mountaintop shrine to pray for it. Nine hundred and ninety-nine stone steps. Nine hundred and ninety-nine prostrations. She split her forehead open. Her knees were raw and bloody by the time she reached the top.