23"I hope to God I did not hear you correctly."
Marilyn Koopermann stood there looking at her with that saccharine smile. Yvonne tried not to believe she was being mocked.
"I mean, what were you thinking? You know we were engaged, right?"
Mother made a half-hearted attempt to pat her daughter's arm. She missed. "Relax, dear," she said. "I thought you'd like to reconnect with an old friend, nothing more."
Yvonne fought a rising fury, an inevitable reaction to feeling trapped and manipulated. If she said she would not attend, she would have to explain herself to Christy and her brother Brian, both of whom would be confused and hurt by her absence. If she did participate, she risked being misinterpreted. Her parents and maybe even Van Zandt himself might believe she really wanted to see C
