Chương 5
She closed it.
Marcus nodded once.
“I’ll keep security with Mrs. Whitmore until she exits.”
Linda gave him a bitter smile.
“How gracious.”
She started toward the front.
At the edge of the dining room, she stopped and looked back at me.
“You should understand something before you destroy your future over one ugly evening.”
Daniel stiffened.
I said nothing.
She glanced at my ring.
“Families remember humiliation.”
Then she walked out.
Marcus followed several steps behind her.
The room breathed again.
Daniel and I stood beside the ruined table.
A busser approached uncertainly with a tub in his hands.
He looked at me.
“Should I clear?”
The normality of the question nearly broke me.
“Yeah, Luis.”
I moved aside.
“Please.”
He lifted Linda’s empty glass first.
Daniel watched it disappear into the tub.
Then he looked at me.
“What did she mean by that?”
“I don’t know.”
Neither of us believed me.
Daniel kept looking toward the front doors long after Linda had disappeared behind them.
The busser folded the ruined tablecloth inward so the wine would not drip onto the floor.
A spoon slid against a plate inside his tub and made Daniel flinch.
“I hate that I’m asking this,” he said, “but does she know something I don’t?”
I rubbed the place beneath my engagement ring with my thumb.
“I don’t know.”
“That sounded like a threat.”
“It sounded like Linda.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“No.”
Luis paused with the tablecloth bundled against his chest.
“Emily, there’s still a little wine under the charger.”
“Thanks.”
I grabbed a napkin and wiped the table myself.
Daniel watched me.
“You don’t have to do that.”
“I know.”
I kept wiping.
There was almost nothing left to clean, but stopping meant talking to him.
A server named Keisha appeared beside us with two glasses of water.
She set them down without her usual smile.
“Marcus said you might need these.”
“Thank you.”
She touched my elbow before walking away.
Daniel picked up one glass, drank half of it, and put it down too hard.
Water jumped over the rim.
He swore under his breath.
I handed him the napkin I had been using.
For one second we both stared at it.
Then he laughed.
It was a terrible laugh.
“I guess cleaning up after my family is becoming a theme.”
“Don’t.”
“I’m not making a joke.”
“I know.”
He wiped the water.
My father returned alone.
“Your mother’s changing.”
His eyes went to Daniel, then to me.
“Marcus locked the recording.”
“Thank you.”
Dad pulled out a chair but did not sit.
“Howard is outside.”
Daniel looked toward the entrance.
“With her?”
“For now.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I saw him standing beside the car while your mother was arguing with him.”
Dad glanced at me.
“Your mother wants five minutes before anyone decides anything.”
“I already told Marcus it’s her decision.”
“Good.”
Daniel shoved both hands into his pockets.
“Mr. Hayes, I’m sorry.”
Dad looked at him.
“I know.”
“I should have stopped this before tonight.”
“That’s a different apology.”
Daniel swallowed.
Dad finally sat down.
He had the peculiar ability to make a chair look like a place where negotiations happened.
“When did your mother start treating Emily this way?”
Daniel’s eyes flicked toward me.
I answered before he could.
“Dad.”
“I’m asking him.”
“I know.”
Dad waited.
Daniel shifted his weight.
“It wasn’t always this bad.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“Try.”
Daniel pulled out the chair across from Dad and sat.
He looked twenty years younger suddenly.
“I guess after we got serious.”
“How serious?”
“Talking about moving in together.”
“And then?”
Daniel rubbed his palms against his pants.
“She started making comments.”
“What kind?”
I felt heat crawl into my face.
“Dad, we don’t need to inventory every rude thing Linda has ever said.”
He looked at me.
“Maybe not.”
The gentleness in his voice made me angrier than if he had argued.
I crossed my arms.
“I handled it.”
Dad’s eyes stayed on mine.
“Clearly.”
That stung.
I looked away.
Daniel leaned forward.
“She made comments about Emily’s job.”
“Did you correct her?”
“Yes.”
I turned back to him.
“Sometimes.”
He stared at the floor.
Dad noticed.
“Sometimes.”
Daniel nodded.
“I thought if I pushed too hard, she’d dig in.”
Dad leaned back.
“And did that strategy work?”
“No.”
There was no sarcasm in Daniel’s answer.
That made the question feel crueler.
Dad rubbed his jaw.
“I’m not trying to punish you.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Daniel looked at him.
Dad exhaled.
“I’m angry.”
“I would be too.”
“That doesn’t make every question I ask useful.”
He stood again.
It was the closest my father came to apologizing when he was still too furious to say the word.
I had grown up translating him.
Daniel had not.
He looked uncertain whether the conversation was over.
Mom saved him from finding out.
She came through the service corridor wearing one of Bellamy’s black button-down shirts with the sleeves rolled above her wrists.
It reached halfway to her thighs.
She had washed most of the mascara from beneath her eyes.
Dad looked at her.
“I told you it was a tent.”
“You own a restaurant and apparently no mirrors.”
Mom sat beside me.
I touched her arm.
“You okay?”
“I’m annoyed that Cabernet stains better than it tastes.”
“Mom.”
She looked at me.
The joke faded.
“I’m okay enough.”
Daniel stood.
“Patricia.”
“Sit down, Daniel.”
He sat.
Mom looked at Dad.
“Did you call the police?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Dad’s eyebrows lifted.
“That’s your decision?”
“For tonight.”
“Patty.”
“I said for tonight.”
She wrapped both hands around the water Keisha had left.
Her fingernails were still faintly red near the cuticles.
“I want the video saved.”
“It is.”
“I want a copy somewhere that isn’t just here.”
“Marcus can arrange it.”
“And I want the names of anyone who was close enough to have seen what happened.”
May you like
Dad nodded.
Daniel looked surprised.
