After the amazing speech, I asked Matthew to show me that old employee room he had mentioned. Selena and Jacob unexpectedly followed us through the beautifully renovated building and down a back corridor still lit by old fluorescent lights. The small room remained exactly the same as I remembered it. My old backpack spot, the grouped chairs, and the wooden wall trim covered with children height marks were all still there. An older employee working in the hall recognized us and explained that Matthew used to give me his entire breakfast each morning while surviving entirely on black coffee. Looking closely at the wooden trim, I found a faded pencil mark reading the letters J O and the number eight. There was no height mark for Matthew anywhere on the wall because he had always been the person holding the pencil. Selena finally broke the silence and quietly apologized, claiming they had not known about his difficult past. Matthew quickly answered that they never needed his tragic history to respect him. Back in the main ballroom, Selena requested that all family portraits be taken full length, and Jacob respectfully took his place right next to Matthew.
I later returned to that small employee room with a pencil in my hand. Ryan carefully marked my wedding day height on the wooden trim, and I proudly wrote my name beneath the new line. Then Matthew stood tall against the wooden trim so we could make his own mark. For the very first time in his entire life, someone else held the pencil for him. When we finally went back to the wedding reception, I absolutely refused to take the hidden service route Selena had once suggested. Matthew and I walked proudly through the main ballroom doors and stepped straight down the center of the room. This time, he did not lift his chin or physically strain to make himself look any taller. He was exactly the wonderful brother who had carried me through the absolute hardest years of my life, and he never needed to be anything more.