I knew what it meant.
Not reconciliation. Performance.
Family weddings are full of optics, and somewhere in the planning process someone—perhaps Diane, perhaps one of those expensive planners who say legacy family representation with a straight face—had realized that an absent stepsister raised questions. Inviting me cost them nothing. It allowed them to look generous. If I declined, they could sigh and say Aar has always been difficult. If I attended, they could display me like a successfully managed inconvenience.
I should have thrown the invitation away.
Instead, I put it in a drawer.
Then took it out again two days later.
Then put it back.
Then booked a hotel room near the venue.