Chương 5
Those things had been real.
So was the woman standing before him now.
He looked at the white train spread across the library rug.
“I’m taking Sophie home.”
Vanessa turned back. “Our home?”
“My home.”
“We live together.”
“It’s my house.”
Her face hardened. “Thank you for clarifying.”
“I want you to stay here tonight or go to your parents’ place. I don’t care which. Do not come to the house.”
“My clothes are there.”
“I’ll have them packed.”
“You will have my belongings packed.”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
“Not Sophie.”
Richard stepped between them, not physically blocking Daniel but occupying enough space to make his intention clear.
“You are angry,” he said. “Understandably. But before you create legal and financial damage that cannot be undone, I suggest you think carefully.”
Daniel looked at him. “Was that advice or a threat?”
“It was advice.”
“Then make it sound less like one.”
Richard’s expression did not change.
The investment agreement between Richard’s holding company and Daniel’s firm contained clauses Daniel had trusted his attorney to read. The largest project on the firm’s schedule—a private arts center in Baltimore—belonged to the Hale Foundation. Forty-two employees had planned their next year around it.
Daniel had not considered any of that when he ended the wedding.
Now he did.
Richard saw him considering it.
“That is what I mean,” Richard said. “Actions extend beyond this room.”
Daniel glanced at Vanessa.
For a moment, humiliation and hope existed together in her face. She hated her father’s intervention, but she wanted it to work.
Daniel thought of Sophie upstairs asking whether children could be sent away for missing their mothers.
“I’ll have my attorney call yours,” he said.
Richard gave a small nod. “That would be wise.”
“It wasn’t agreement.”
“I know.”
Daniel left the library.
By the time he reached the foyer, more guests had gone. The wedding planner was speaking quietly to the caterer. A waiter carried untouched champagne back toward the service hall. Beyond the open front doors, valets jogged between rows of cars beneath a clear afternoon sky.
Claire stood near the staircase.
She wore a dark green dress and held Sophie’s cardigan over one arm. Her black hair was pinned loosely at the back of her neck, the way Emma used to wear hers when she cooked. The resemblance was strongest when Claire was angry.
“What happened?” she asked.
Daniel kept walking. “Not here.”
“She told me Vanessa tore it.”
“Not here, Claire.”
Claire followed him up the stairs. “You’re the one who invited two hundred people.”
He stopped on the landing.
“Please.”
Something in his face quieted her.
They entered the bridal suite together.
Sophie was eating a chocolate with both hands. Margaret had found a sewing kit and was repairing a loose ribbon on the flower basket. For a few seconds, the room seemed removed from everything below.
Then Sophie saw Claire.
“Aunt Claire.”
Claire sat beside her and touched her cheek. “I heard you ran faster than everybody.”
Sophie nodded solemnly. “My shoe came loose.”
“That usually makes people slower.”
“I’m very fast.”
“So was your mom.”
Sophie looked at the photograph on the cushion.
“Daddy says someone can fix it.”
“They can,” Claire said.
“With no line?”
Claire glanced at Daniel.
“Probably with a line,” she said.
Sophie’s shoulders dropped.
Claire picked up one half carefully. “A line isn’t the same as gone.”
Margaret looked at her.
Claire’s mouth tightened as if she regretted making the sentence sound important.
“Sometimes paper just stays a little weird,” she added.
That pleased Sophie more. “Weird how?”
“Maybe shiny. Maybe thicker.”
“Can we make a copy?”
“We can make ten.”
Daniel leaned against the wall.
He watched Claire and Sophie align the pieces. Emma’s face came together with part of her shoulder missing in the gap. Claire did not cry. She had never cried in front of Sophie about Emma, though Daniel knew there were days she did little else at home.
Sophie pointed toward the window.
“They’re taking the chairs.”
Outside, two staff members had begun folding the back rows.
“Good,” Daniel said.
She looked at him. “Why good?”
He walked over and sat on the edge of the window seat.
“Because we’re leaving.”
“Can I change my dress?”
“Yes.”
“But not here.”
“Where do you want to change?”
“At home.”
“Then at home.”
“What about the cake?”
Margaret made a small surprised sound.
Sophie looked embarrassed. “I only asked.”
Claire said, “That cake has six layers. It would be irresponsible to abandon all of it.”
Daniel almost laughed. The sound stopped in his throat, but Sophie noticed.
“Can we take some?”
“We’ll ask,” he said.
An hour later, Daniel left the mansion carrying Sophie’s flower basket in one hand and a white bakery box in the other. Sophie walked beside him in the pink dress, holding Claire’s hand. Margaret followed with a garment bag containing Sophie’s ordinary clothes.
No one spoke to Vanessa before leaving.
In the back seat of Daniel’s car, Sophie balanced the cake box on her knees.
“Careful,” he said.
“I am.”
“You’re tilting it.”
“I’m not.”
Pink frosting had already touched one side of the cardboard.
Daniel drove through the stone gates and onto the road. His phone remained off in the center console. Claire sat in the passenger seat, watching him without speaking.
After ten minutes, Sophie said, “Grandma said grown-ups paid a lot of money.”
Daniel looked at her in the rearview mirror.
“That’s not your problem.”
“Is it yours?”
“Yes.”
“Are you in trouble?”
Claire turned slightly. “Your dad is always in trouble. He’s an architect.”
Daniel gave her a look.
“What?” she said. “You people put flat roofs in rainy places.”
Sophie giggled.
The sound struck him harder than her crying had.
May you like
He gripped the steering wheel and kept his eyes on the road.
Their house stood on a quiet street outside Philadelphia, a three-story brick home Daniel had bought with Emma one year before Sophie was born. Vanessa had moved in gradually. First a toothbrush, then a drawer, then a garment rack in the guest room because Daniel’s closet was “designed by someone hostile to women.” By the time they became engaged, the house had changed without appearing to.
