Chương 11
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She flinched.
“I know now.”
“That is not the same thing.”
Amber sat down on the driveway.
Not gracefully.
She simply lowered herself onto the concrete as if her legs had stopped cooperating.
Her sweatshirt bunched at her waist.
“I thought if I could get through the wedding, I could fix it after.”
Garnet looked at her.
“Why was the wedding worth this?”
She laughed through her tears.
“That’s a terrible question.”
“Why?”
“Because you know.”
“I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
He shook his head.
“I really don’t.”
Amber pulled her knees up and wrapped both arms around them.
“When my sister got married, my mother talked about it for years.”
Nobody interrupted.
“She talked about the flowers and the hotel and the photographs and who came and who didn’t.”
Amber looked toward the street.
“She still shows people the album.”
Hazel sat very still.
Amber continued.
“My wedding was always going to be the one thing nobody could say I did halfway.”
Garnet frowned.
“Who says you do things halfway?”
Amber gave him a look.
“My mother.”
“Your mother thinks buying generic cereal is a moral failure.”
Amber almost smiled.
Almost.
“She notices things.”
“She criticizes things.”
“She notices.”
Garnet shook his head.
“You risked my company because your mother notices centerpieces?”
“No.”
Amber’s voice sharpened.
“Don’t make it stupid.”
“I’m trying to understand.”
“You won’t.”
“Try me.”
She stared at him.
“I spent my whole childhood watching her act embarrassed by our house.”
Garnet’s face changed slightly.
“She would clean before the cleaning lady came because she didn’t want the woman to think we were messy.”
Hazel looked down.
“She returned clothes after wearing them once because she wanted us to look like we had more than we did.”
Amber’s voice had gone flat.
“At Christmas, she’d keep price tags visible until people noticed them.”
Garnet said, “Amber.”
“I know it’s pathetic.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You were thinking it.”
“I was thinking it sounds exhausting.”
That stopped her.
She looked at him.
He looked back.
The anger between them did not disappear.
It simply made room for something sadder.
Amber wiped her face again.
“I wanted one day where nobody could look down on me.”
Garnet glanced toward Hawthorne Hall’s direction, though it was miles away.
“You had that without forty-eight thousand dollars.”
She shook her head.
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“No, you don’t.”
She looked at me.
“Your father owns places like that.”
I said nothing.
“He walks into a room and people move.”
I almost objected.
Then I remembered Malcolm abandoning the florist mid-argument because I had said his name.
Amber continued.
“Your mother wears old pearls like she doesn’t care if anyone knows what they’re worth.”
Hazel touched her throat instinctively, forgetting the pearls were no longer there.
Amber laughed weakly.
“You all have this thing where money doesn’t look like money.”
I said, “That isn’t always a virtue.”
Everyone looked at me.
I sat on the porch step opposite Garnet.
“I hid too much from him.”
Amber’s eyes narrowed.
“That doesn’t excuse what you did.”
“I know.”
Garnet looked at me.
The silence between us was different from before.
Still angry.
Less certain.
My phone rang.
Daniel.
I answered.
“You called?”
“I need you here.”
He sighed.
“Martin, I just got home.”
“This is worse.”
There was a pause.
“How much worse?”
“Possible false client invoices and diverted payments through a separate account.”
Daniel became completely alert.
“Whose company?”
“Garnet’s.”
“Do not move money.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Do not delete anything.”
“I know.”
“Do not contact clients yet.”
“Already told him.”
“Do not let anyone access the devices involved.”
I looked at Amber.
She looked back.
“I understand.”
Daniel said he was coming.
I ended the call.
Amber slowly stood.
“I need my laptop.”
“No,” Garnet said.
“It has personal things on it.”
“It also has company records.”
“It’s mine.”
“Then bring it here and we can copy the company data.”
She hesitated.
Garnet watched her.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“What’s on it?”
“Pictures.”
“I don’t care about pictures.”
“Emails.”
“Company emails?”
“Some.”
He rubbed his forehead.
“Amber.”
“I deleted some things.”
Everything stopped again.
Garnet’s hand fell.
“When?”
“Last night.”
“What things?”
“I was scared.”
“What things?”
“The invoices.”
He stared at her.
“You deleted them?”
“From my email.”
“And the laptop?”
“Some.”
Hazel whispered, “Oh, honey.”
Amber snapped toward her.
“Don’t call me that.”
Hazel nodded.
“All right.”
Amber looked immediately ashamed of the outburst.
“I’m sorry.”
Hazel did not answer.
Garnet said, “Where is the laptop now?”
“At the hotel.”
“Which room?”
“You know the room.”
“I need the key.”
“I have it.”
“Give it to me.”
Amber stepped backward.
“No.”
His face hardened.
“Why?”
“Because you’ll go through everything.”
“I only care about company records.”
“You say that now.”
“Amber.”
She shook her head.
“You don’t get to take my whole life because I made a mistake.”
Garnet’s voice dropped.
“This is beyond a mistake.”
“I know.”
“Then give me the key.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
This time he did not ask me to intervene.
He was simply checking whether I was about to.
I stayed seated.
Hazel stayed quiet too.
Garnet turned back to Amber.
“I’m going to the hotel.”
“You can’t enter the room without me.”
“My name is on the reservation.”
“No.”
“It is.”
“I changed it.”
He stared at her.
“What?”
“The reservation.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want your parents calling the hotel.”
I felt my stomach tighten.
Garnet said, “When did you change it?”
“Yesterday afternoon.”
“Before the wedding?”
“Yes.”
“Before the glue?”
“Yes.”
He looked at me.
Then at her.
“Why were you worried about my parents calling the hotel before anything happened?”
Amber froze.
There it was.
A detail that did not fit.
Hazel stood slowly.
Amber looked toward the SUV.
Garnet stepped between her and the driver’s door, leaving several feet between them.
“What were you planning?”
May you like
“Nothing.”
“You changed the reservation before the wedding.”
