Chapter 8 - THE PHOTOGRAPHY PLAN
The wedding photographer had a shot list.
Most ordinary.
Bride with groom.
Bride with mother.
Bride with siblings.
Family generations.
Then one group:
CORVANE WOMEN — CLEAN LINE.
Names:
Lenora.
Marjorie.
Ivy.
No Elara, obviously.
She was dead.
Yet beside Ivy’s name was a note:
HAIR DOWN / NO BRAID AFTER CUT.
The photographer said the note came from Marjorie’s coordinator.
Why “clean line”?
She assumed aesthetic shorthand.
Lenora later explained differently.
She wanted a photograph of three generations of Corvane women.
Not by blood exactly—Ivy was Sebastian's daughter and Marjorie's niece, yes.
But Elara had married into family. So Ivy carries Sebastian Corvane blood.
Why would Ivy evoke Elara? Appearance, not blood.
Lenora wanted the picture to look “Corvane.”
Her term.
Not Elara’s style.
Then the wedding-program draft.
An early version had a memorial line:
In loving memory of Elara Corvane, sister-in-law of the bride and mother of flower girl Ivy.
Marjorie removed it.
Her right?
It was her wedding.
She did not owe a memorial line.
Then Lenora added one without Marjorie knowing.
Marjorie discovered it.
Furious.
Removed it again.
That argument happened two days before the wedding.
Interesting.
Marjorie was not merely jealous of Elara.
She was exhausted by Lenora constantly using Elara too.
Lenora invoked the dead woman when useful.
Then resented her when inconvenient.
The family kept turning Elara into currency.
I had done versions of it too.
The central plan was still taking shape.
Not just:
May you like
erase Elara.
Something more specific had happened during wedding week.
