Chương 4
“Those people?”
Linda looked at me.
For perhaps the first time that evening, she seemed to hear her own words before anyone else had to repeat them.
She recovered quickly.
“You know what I meant.”
“Yes.”
“No, you don’t.”
“I think I finally do.”
Her mouth tightened.
Daniel stepped closer to me.
“Emily, please don’t make any decisions tonight.”
I looked at him.
“What decisions?”
His eyes dropped, almost involuntarily, to my left hand.
The ring suddenly felt heavier.
I curled my fingers.
“I don’t know,” I said.
It was the truth, and saying it made him look worse than if I had threatened to leave.
Howard picked up Linda’s coat from the back of her chair.
“Come on.”
She ignored him.
“Daniel, tell her this is insane.”
He said nothing.
“You’re going to let her punish you for something I did?”
Still nothing.
Linda’s voice rose.
“I made one mistake.”
I thought about Christmas dinner at the Whitmores’ house, when she introduced me to a neighbor as “Daniel’s friend from the restaurant.”
I thought about the fundraiser where she handed me an empty champagne flute without looking at my face because she had mistaken me for catering staff.
I thought about the afternoon she suggested I take elocution lessons before meeting several of Howard’s clients.
One mistake was such a generous description that it almost impressed me.
“You made one visible mistake,” I said.
Linda’s eyes narrowed.
“That’s very dramatic.”
“No.”
I touched the edge of the table.
“This is actually the least confused I’ve been in months.”
Daniel looked at me.
“Em.”
I turned to him.
“You knew about the invitation.”
“I saw it today.”
“You knew she told people I was quitting my job after the wedding.”
“I told her that wasn’t decided.”
“You knew she moved my parents’ table.”
“I changed it back.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
He looked away.
There it was again.
The little habit people had when they wanted credit for cleaning up a mess they had helped keep secret.
“You knew,” I said.
“Yes.”
Linda cut in.
“Oh, for God’s sake, couples compromise.”
“This isn’t about you,” Daniel snapped.
“It certainly seems to be.”
Howard held out her coat.
“Linda.”
“What?”
“Put it on.”
She stared at him.
“I’m not leaving like I’ve been thrown out.”
Marcus returned before Howard could answer.
“Mrs. Whitmore, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the premises.”
Her eyes widened.
“You cannot be serious.”
“I am.”
“My son’s engagement dinner is here.”
Marcus glanced at the ruined table.
“I’m aware.”
“And you’re humiliating me in front of everyone.”
He gave her a tired look.
“Ma’am, I’m not responsible for that.”
Howard covered his mouth.
I could not tell whether he was coughing or suppressing a laugh.
Linda heard it.
“You find this funny?”
“No.”
“You’re smiling.”
“I’m really not.”
“You always do this.”
Howard lowered his hand.
“Do what?”
“Make me look unreasonable.”
A silence settled between them that felt older than the dinner.
Howard’s expression changed.
Not anger.
Fatigue.
“I have spent twenty-seven years trying to make you look reasonable.”
Linda went still.
Daniel looked at his father.
So did I.
Howard seemed surprised by his own sentence.
He examined Linda’s coat as though wondering why he was holding it.
Then he placed it on the back of her chair.
“I’m going outside.”
“You’re leaving me here?”
“Yes.”
“You drove.”
“I’ll wait by the car.”
“Howard.”
He kept walking.
Linda’s face flushed.
The loss of her husband’s quiet compliance seemed to frighten her more than Marcus, the cameras, or my father’s ownership of the restaurant.
She grabbed her coat.
“This family has clearly decided to gang up on me.”
Daniel let out a breath through his nose.
“Nobody made you throw the wine.”
“I said I lost my temper.”
“And then you lied about it.”
“I panicked.”
“You blamed Patricia.”
“She was provoking me.”
“Mom.”
His voice cracked.
He looked embarrassed by it.
Linda looked at him, and for a moment something almost maternal broke through her anger.
“Danny.”
He flinched.
She softened her tone.
“You know me.”
“I thought I did.”
“Don’t say things you don’t mean because you’re upset.”
“I’m not sure what I mean.”
“That girl has you twisted around so badly you can’t even see what she’s doing.”
His face changed.
“Don’t.”
“She hid who her father was.”
“So?”
“So people don’t do that unless they’re testing you.”
I stared at her.
A cold clarity settled over me.
“You think I was testing you?”
“You obviously were.”
“I worked double shifts around Daniel’s birthday because one of our servers had surgery.”
“You could have asked your father for money.”
“I didn’t need money.”
“You lived in a one-bedroom apartment.”
“I liked my apartment.”
“You drove a seven-year-old Honda.”
“It starts every morning.”
She looked genuinely baffled.
In Linda’s world, having access to money meant proving it.
Anything else looked like deception.
Daniel rubbed his forehead.
“This is unbelievable.”
“No,” I said.
“It actually explains a lot.”
Linda looked toward the ceiling camera again.
“Fine.”
She shoved one arm into her coat.
“If your father wants to preserve his little recording, let him.”
Marcus’s expression sharpened.
“He does.”
“And then what?”
Nobody answered immediately.
That seemed to restore some of her confidence.
“There is no injury.”
She pulled on the other sleeve.
“There is no crime anyone will care about.”
Marcus looked at me.
The question returned without words.
Call the police or don’t.
I had imagined, in the first bright burst of anger, how satisfying it would be to watch officers walk Linda through the dining room.
Now the thought made my stomach turn.
Not because I felt sorry for her.
Because I did not want my mother’s humiliation transformed into entertainment for another twenty tables.
“I want Mom to decide,” I said.
Linda scoffed.
“Of course.”
I looked at her.
“She’s the one you assaulted.”
Her mouth opened.
I raised my hand.
May you like
“Don’t.”
Something in my voice worked.
