Chương 5
Daniel went silent.
I could almost see him doing the math of distance, school, time, and the fact that our daughter had apparently built a future while we were arguing about whether she cleaned the bathroom often enough.
“Where?” I asked.
Emily looked up.
“New York.”
The room around us kept moving.
Glasses clinked.
Someone laughed near the windows.
A photographer asked one of the models to turn toward the light.
I heard all of it.
Then I heard Lauren’s voice behind me.
“Emily, sweetheart.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Only for a second.
When she opened them, she looked tired rather than angry.
Lauren stood just inside the reception room.
Apparently someone had eventually approved her.
Madison and Chloe remained near the door.
Lauren approached with a smile that was too bright.
“I had no idea.”
Emily said nothing.
“You were incredible.”
“Thank you.”
“Truly incredible.”
Lauren laughed nervously.
“I mean, honestly, I’m shocked.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
Lauren heard herself a second too late.
“I mean surprised.”
Emily took a glass of sparkling cider from a passing tray.
“I figured.”
Lauren touched the strap of her bag.
“Listen, about last weekend.”
Emily looked at her.
Lauren’s eyes darted briefly toward Celeste, Julian, and the people nearby.
“I was teasing.”
Nobody rescued her.
Lauren cleared her throat.
“You know me.”
“Yes,” Emily said.
The answer was quiet.
Lauren’s smile faltered.
“I say things.”
“You do.”
“Sometimes they come out wrong.”
Emily took a sip of cider.
Lauren shifted closer.
“Anyway, there’s no reason for tonight to be awkward.”
Emily’s eyebrows rose slightly.
Lauren rushed on.
“I actually have that charity gala next month.”
Madison’s eyes closed in embarrassment.
Lauren either did not notice or chose not to.
“I was thinking maybe you could design something custom for me.”
Emily lowered the glass.
Lauren smiled again.
“Family discount, obviously.”
Emily stared at her aunt for a moment, then glanced toward Madison, who was studying the carpet as though she could disappear into it.
“You want me to make you a dress?”
Lauren brightened, apparently mistaking the question for interest.
“Yes.”
“For the charity gala?”
“Exactly.”
“When is it?”
“October eighteenth.”
Emily nodded slowly.
“And you want a discount?”
Lauren laughed.
“Well, I mean, I’m family.”
Emily took another sip of cider.
“So was I last Saturday.”
Lauren’s smile stopped.
Daniel looked down at the floor.
I knew that look.
He was trying very hard not to enjoy this.
Lauren’s eyes moved toward the people standing nearby.
Celeste had become intensely interested in the folder she was holding.
Julian was making no such effort.
He was watching openly.
“Emily,” Lauren said, lowering her voice.
“I already told you I was joking.”
“No, you said you were being honest.”
The words were not sharp.
That made them harder to escape.
Lauren swallowed.
“I said something stupid.”
Emily waited.
For a second, I thought Lauren might actually apologize.
She almost did.
I could see the sentence forming.
Then pride got there first.
“I just think you’re taking it more seriously than I meant it.”
Emily’s shoulders dropped slightly.
Not with relief.
With recognition.
There it was.
The familiar family maneuver.
The insult had become the injured person’s failure to interpret it correctly.
Emily looked at her aunt.
“My clothes aren’t really for everybody.”
Lauren frowned.
Emily’s voice remained calm.
“Maybe when you lose some of that arrogance, you’ll feel more comfortable wearing something I made.”
Madison’s head snapped up.
Chloe made a tiny sound that could have been a cough or a laugh.
Lauren went red from her neck upward.
Daniel pressed his lips together.
I did not.
I laughed.
It escaped me before I could stop it.
Lauren looked at me.
“Seriously?”
“I’m sorry.”
I was not sorry.
She turned back to Emily.
“That was unnecessary.”
Emily nodded.
“Probably.”
The answer surprised all of us.
Even Lauren.
Emily looked down at her glass.
“I’ve been thinking about saying something like that to you all week.”
Then she raised her eyes again.
“It felt better in my head.”
Lauren blinked.
For the first time, the exchange stopped looking like a victory.
It became what it actually was.
A seventeen-year-old girl trying to hurt an adult who had hurt her first.
Emily seemed to understand that at the same moment I did.
She exhaled.
“But I’m still not making you a dress.”
Lauren’s mouth tightened.
“That’s fine.”
“Okay.”
“I can buy one.”
“I know.”
“I have designers I already wear.”
“Then you’re set.”
Lauren stared at her for another second.
Then she turned and walked toward the door.
Madison stayed where she was.
Lauren noticed after several steps.
“Madison.”
“I’ll come down in a minute.”
Lauren stopped.
Something passed between mother and daughter that had nothing to do with fashion.
“Now, please.”
Madison adjusted the strap of her Gucci bag.
“I want to talk to Emily.”
“About what?”
Madison looked embarrassed.
“I don’t know yet.”
Chloe stared between them.
Lauren’s face hardened.
Then she gave a small nod.
“Fine.”
She left.
Chloe hesitated, then followed her.
Madison remained by the door.
Emily looked at her cousin.
Madison looked back.
Neither seemed to know how to begin.
Julian finally rescued everyone.
“Well, I’m going to pretend I did not just witness that.”
“You absolutely witnessed it,” Celeste said.
“I witnessed nothing legally actionable.”
Daniel laughed.
The tension loosened by a fraction.
Julian looked at Emily.
“Come find me before you leave.”
“And congratulations again.”
“Thank you.”
Celeste touched Emily’s shoulder.
“Ten minutes, then we need you for photos.”
Emily groaned.
“You agreed.”
“I was under emotional duress.”
“You signed the release.”
“I was apparently also under legal duress.”
Celeste smiled at us and moved away with Julian.
Daniel pointed toward the buffet.
“I’m going to find food.”
“You ate in the car,” I said.
“That was road food.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means it doesn’t count.”
He kissed Emily on the top of her head before leaving.
May you like
I stayed long enough to look at Madison.
She still had not moved closer.
