Chương 5
"Has she hit you?"
Garnet almost looked offended.
"No."
"Threatened you?"
"No."
"Then what happens when you tell her no?"
He stared at the phone.
"She doesn't let it go."
"Meaning?"
"She calls."
"Like now?"
"She texts."
"What else?"
He rubbed his palms together.
"She shows up at the office."
My attention sharpened.
"Your office?"
He nodded.
"When?"
"A few times."
"What does she do?"
"Nothing crazy."
The phrase came too quickly.
Hazel heard it too.
"What does she do, Garnet?"
He stood suddenly.
"I shouldn't have come."
I stepped between him and the hallway.
"Sit down."
"Don't."
"Your wife came to your workplace because you disagreed with her?"
"It's not like that."
"Then tell us what it's like."
His phone vibrated again.
This time a message preview lit the screen.
I could read only the first line from where I stood.
If you are at their house, don't bother coming home.
Garnet saw me see it.
He snatched up the phone.
"Dad."
"What?"
"Stay out of this."
Hazel's voice was softer.
"Are you happy?"
Garnet looked toward her.
His face tightened.
"That's not fair."
"It wasn't meant to be."
He sat again.
For several seconds, the only sound in the room was the refrigerator cycling on in the kitchen.
Then Garnet said, almost too quietly to hear, "I don't know."
My anger did not disappear.
That would have been too easy.
I could still see him standing guard at that ballroom door.
I could still hear him laughing.
But the shape of the problem had changed.
The cowardice I had despised in my son no longer looked quite as simple as weakness.
It looked practiced.
Conditioned.
Useful to someone.
Garnet lifted his phone again.
There were six new messages.
He did not open them.
Instead, he looked at Hazel.
"She wants me to make you apologize."
Hazel's expression didn't change.
"For what?"
"For ruining the wedding."
"And what do you want?"
Garnet stared at the dark screen in his hand.
For once, nobody answered for him.
Garnet pressed his thumb against the side of the phone until the screen went black.
“I want everybody to stop telling me what I want.”
Hazel sat back.
“That sounds like a start.”
He gave her a tired look.
“Please don’t make it sound like one of your sayings.”
“I wasn’t.”
“You do that.”
“I know.”
The old irritation between them surfaced so naturally that for a second they looked like mother and son again instead of three people standing in the wreckage of a wedding.
Garnet leaned back in the chair and stared at the ceiling.
“I wanted one day where nobody fought.”
I almost answered.
Hazel glanced at me, and I kept my mouth shut.
He noticed.
“See?”
“See what?” I asked.
“You’re both waiting for me to say the thing that proves you were right.”
“That isn’t what I’m waiting for.”
“Then what are you waiting for?”
I looked at him.
“For you to decide whether you came here because you need help or because Amber sent you to demand an apology.”
He flinched at her name.
“Both, maybe.”
Hazel folded her hands.
“What kind of help?”
Garnet looked toward the hallway again.
It was a habit I had begun noticing only now, as though he expected someone to enter whenever he said too much.
“I don’t know.”
His phone vibrated once.
Then twice.
Then continuously.
He picked it up.
Amber was calling through video.
Garnet stared at the screen until the call ended.
A text arrived immediately afterward.
Answer me.
Another appeared beneath it.
I know where you are.
Hazel read the preview from across the table.
Her face changed.
“She can see your location?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you give her access?”
“We share locations.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Garnet rubbed the back of his neck.
“It was easier.”
“Easier than what?”
He looked annoyed.
“Mom.”
“I’m asking.”
“Easier than arguing about why I’d turn it off.”
Hazel rose and walked into the kitchen.
She returned with a glass of water and set it in front of him.
He didn’t touch it.
I said, “Turn it off.”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’ll lose her mind.”
“Then let her.”
Garnet laughed once.
“That is exactly the kind of thing you say when you don’t have to live with the next six hours.”
I felt the old impulse to solve the problem instantly.
Cancel the lease.
Freeze the trust distributions.
Call Daniel.
Call security.
Do something large enough that everybody else would have to stop moving.
Hazel must have seen it on my face.
“Martin.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
Garnet looked between us.
“What?”
“Your father solves emotional problems with paperwork.”
“That is not true.”
Hazel raised an eyebrow.
“It is aggressively true.”
Garnet almost smiled.
The smile vanished quickly, but I saw it.
His phone buzzed again.
This time he opened the messages.
His eyes moved down the screen.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“Garnet.”
“Dad, stop.”
He stood.
“I need to go.”
Hazel remained seated.
“Where?”
“Home.”
“You just said you didn’t want to.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You said you didn’t know if you were happy.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m leaving my wife the morning after our wedding.”
The sentence hung there.
It was absurd and completely reasonable at the same time.
Hazel nodded slowly.
“No, it doesn’t.”
Garnet seemed surprised that she agreed.
He shoved the phone into his pocket.
“I just need to calm her down.”
I said, “And then?”
He frowned.
“And then we deal with this.”
“What does dealing with it look like?”
“I don’t know.”
“Will she apologize?”
He gave me a hard look.
“Will you?”
“For switching the chairs?”
“Yes.”
“No.”
His jaw set.
“There you go.”
“What do you want me to say?”
“That you were wrong.”
“I was angry.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“I shouldn't have used her humiliation to answer yours.”
Hazel looked at me.
May you like
So did Garnet.
The words felt unpleasant in my mouth, which was probably why they were worth saying.
