CHAPTER 5 - The Birthday They Shared
One year later, Celeste and Anna returned to the ballroom.
The golden lights and pale balloons were the same, but the celebration was different.
There were no wealthy guests invited to impress investors. The room was filled with foster families, social workers, and young women preparing to leave residential care.
The sisters had transformed part of their inheritance into the Two Hearts Foundation, helping separated siblings locate one another and supporting young adults leaving foster care.
Anna no longer wore a maid's uniform.
She directed the foundation's hospitality training program and had opened a small catering business of her own.
Celeste became chairwoman of the family company. She discovered she was not incapable of leadership. She had simply spent years listening to people who benefited from her insecurity.
Marcus was convicted of fraud and ordered to return the stolen funds. Celeste never visited him.
Her divorce taught her that losing a dishonest marriage was not failure.
It was freedom arriving in painful clothing.
At the celebration, Anna carried two glasses of sparkling cider toward Celeste.
She deliberately tilted the tray.
Celeste stepped back dramatically.
"Please don't make me relive that."
Anna laughed.
Then Celeste's smile faded.
"I am still sorry I hit you."
"I know."
"I wish our first moment together had been different."
Anna handed her a glass.
"If the champagne had not fallen, you might never have looked at me."
The sisters joined the two pieces of their mother's pendant. The silver heart became whole again.
Esther brought out the eighteen birthday cards and gifts they had kept for one another. Guests watched as the sisters exchanged them, beginning with the gifts meant for two frightened children.
Celeste opened Anna's oldest card.
Two little girls stood beneath an apple tree, holding hands.
Underneath, seven-year-old Anna had written:
My sister will find me.
Celeste could no longer speak.
Anna embraced her.
"Happy birthday, sister."
Celeste held her tightly.
May you like
"This time, we celebrate yours too."
A broken champagne glass exposed the lie, but two young women chose love, courage, and eighteen new birthdays to repair what had been stolen.
