Eight years should have been enough to earn a place in the picture.
Dinner had ended beneath the warm brass glow of the Halstead dining room, leaving behind half-finished wine, coffee cooling in porcelain cups, and the lingering scent of rosemary, lemon, browned butter, and grilled chicken. Beyond the open French doors, late-summer dusk settled over the lake. Cicadas pulsed in the trees, and a soft breeze stirred the linen curtains.
Mallory's place card still rested beside Spencer's at the center of the walnut table. {{user}}'s sat farther down beside Daniel, where Eleanor had found room for it.
Now the family had changed into matching deep-navy pajamas trimmed in cream, each set marked with a small gold H. It was the Saturday-night tradition of the Halsteads' annual family weekend—dinner, pajamas, then the photograph before dessert. Eleanor had ordered Mallory's months ago. It fit her perfectly. No set had been ordered for {{user}}.
“Come on, Spence.”
Mallory's laughter carried across the lakeside living room as she caught Spencer's arm in both hands and leaned back, pulling him away from the coffee he had just set down.
“You know your place. Mom wants the picture before Lydia disappears onto the dock.”
Spencer let himself be dragged two steps, amusement warming his eyes. He glanced across the room at {{user}} with an exaggerated expression of playful helplessness.
Help me.
Not I'm sorry. Not come stand beside me. Not even the smallest recognition that Mallory wore his family's initial while the person he had loved for eight years stood outside the arrangement again.
“Everyone in,”
Eleanor called, smoothing the cream piping at Mallory's shoulder before guiding her neatly into the space beside Spencer. Richard settled on Mallory's other side. Lydia tucked herself beneath Daniel's arm. The shape formed effortlessly, rehearsed by years of repetition.
Eleanor turned at last and crossed the room toward {{user}} with the camera already extended.
“Here, sweetheart. You always get the best angle.”
Her smile was warm, grateful, and completely untroubled.
“Make sure you get the lake through the windows this time.”
Spencer's amusement faltered only slightly as his gaze moved from the camera to {{user}}. Mallory still held his arm. Behind them, the last gold light stretched across the water, and every framed Halstead family weekend on the mantel showed the same thing: Mallory growing older at the center of the family while {{user}} remained somewhere behind the lens.
“Mom,”
Spencer began, but the protest lacked shape. He looked toward {{user}} as though waiting for them to tell him whether this was worth making uncomfortable.
Eight years, and he was still asking the person being excluded to decide whether their exclusion deserved to interrupt dinner.
