Chương 13
“So am I.”
He nodded.
Then he said, “I’m sorry about the dress.”
This time I let him say it.
My throat tightened before I could stop it.
“I know.”
“I know I can’t fix it.”
“No.”
“I keep wanting to say I’ll replace it.”
“You can’t.”
“I know.”
He looked embarrassed by the helplessness of that.
Good.
Some things should remain helpless.
“I’m still angry with you,” I said.
“I know.”
“I may be angry with you tonight.”
“That seems optimistic.”
I laughed despite myself.
It came out shakier than I wanted.
Adrian’s face softened.
He did not reach for me.
That mattered.
I looked at the time.
12:46.
“We need to go.”
He nodded.
We got back into the car.
Tessa waited until Adrian closed the door.
“So are we still doing a wedding?”
“I don’t know,” I said.
Charles answered from the back.
“You should.”
Everyone turned toward him.
He frowned.
“What?”
Adrian said, “Dad.”
“I like weddings.”
Tessa covered a laugh with a cough.
Charles looked at me.
“Especially yours.”
My chest tightened.
“That is a suspiciously biased opinion.”
“Yes.”
He settled his coat more firmly over his knees.
“I am old.”
“I am allowed bias.”
No one argued with him.
On the drive back, Adrian called Daniel again.
This time Charles spoke directly.
He confirmed that he wanted independent legal advice and did not consent to further use of his signature on any business or trust document.
Daniel told him someone from Charles’s existing law firm would meet them privately at the hotel.
Charles became irritated by the word privately.
“I’m not a child.”
Daniel’s voice came faintly through the speaker.
“No one said you were, Mr. Harrow.”
“They keep saying private like I’m contagious.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Dad.”
“What?”
Tessa muttered, “I like him.”
I did too.
That complicated things.
By 1:09, we were back underground at the hotel.
The wedding planner, Naomi, was waiting near the elevator.
She took one look at Charles, Adrian, Tessa, and me and visibly recalculated her entire career.
“Claire.”
“Hi.”
“Guests are seated in the ballroom holding area.”
“Okay.”
“Your father is looking for you.”
My stomach dropped.
“And Evelyn?”
Naomi blinked.
“She isn’t here.”
Of course she wasn’t.
“Did anyone tell my father about the dress?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Naomi looked at my reception dress.
Then at my bare feet.
Then at Adrian without a jacket.
She closed her eyes for half a second.
“What do you need?”
I liked her immediately for asking that instead of what happened.
“A private room for Charles.”
“Yes.”
“Access restricted to Adrian, me, Daniel Cho, and Charles’s attorney.”
“Yes.”
“And twenty minutes before anyone comes looking for me.”
Naomi nodded.
“Done.”
She pointed toward a service corridor.
“I’ll use the family meeting room behind the ballroom.”
Charles said, “Is there coffee?”
Naomi looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Real coffee?”
“I can make no promises.”
He sighed.
“Hotels.”
We moved him into the meeting room.
A server brought coffee, water, fruit, and a plate of small sandwiches nobody touched.
Charles inspected the coffee and declared it acceptable.
That seemed to improve his mood more than any legal reassurance.
Daniel arrived at 1:18 with another attorney named Ruth Patel, who had represented Charles personally for nearly a decade.
Ruth was small, gray-haired, and entirely unimpressed by the occasion.
She shook Charles’s hand.
“Do you know why I’m here?”
Charles looked annoyed.
“Yes.”
“Tell me anyway.”
“Because my family is apparently incapable of having one normal Thursday.”
Ruth nodded.
“Good enough.”
Then she asked everyone except Charles to leave.
Adrian started to object.
Charles pointed toward the door.
“Out.”
We went.
The hallway outside the meeting room was lined with framed photographs of the hotel from the 1920s.
I stared at one showing men in hats standing beside automobiles with enormous headlights.
Adrian paced.
Tessa ate half a sandwich she had stolen from Charles’s tray.
“I haven’t eaten since six,” she said when I looked at her.
“I wasn’t judging.”
“You looked judgmental.”
“I always look judgmental.”
“True.”
Adrian stopped pacing.
“Where’s my mother?”
I checked my phone.
No messages.
Then one appeared.
From Evelyn.
We need to speak before you make a mistake that cannot be undone.
I showed it to Adrian.
He stared at the screen.
“What do you want to do?”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“She wants control of the conversation.”
“So we deny it.”
He nodded slowly.
That was progress.
Naomi appeared at the far end of the hallway.
“Claire.”
Something in her expression made my stomach drop again.
“What now?”
“Your father found the bridal suite.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did he see the dress?”
“Yes.”
The hallway seemed to narrow.
I handed Adrian my phone and walked toward the elevator.
He followed.
“Claire.”
“I need to talk to him.”
“I know.”
When the doors opened on the bridal floor, I heard my father before I saw him.
Not shouting.
That would have been easier.
He was crying.
My father almost never cried.
He had cried at my mother’s funeral.
He had cried once in the hospital parking lot when the oncologist told us there were no more useful treatments.
That was it.
Now he stood in the bridal suite doorway holding the cream card.
Know your place.
His shoulders shook.
I stopped.
“Dad.”
He turned.
His face crumpled.
“Your mother.”
I crossed the room and hugged him.
He held me so tightly I could barely breathe.
“She worked so hard on that dress.”
“I know.”
“She could barely see by the end.”
“I know.”
“And somebody did this?”
“Yes.”
He pulled back.
“Who?”
I looked at Adrian.
My father followed my eyes.
His face changed immediately.
“No.”
“Dad.”
“His mother?”
“Yes.”
He dropped the card onto the table like it had burned him.
Adrian stepped forward.
“Mr. Bennett.”
My father held up one hand.
“Not now.”
Adrian stopped.
Dad looked at me.
“We’re leaving.”
“I’m not.”
His mouth opened.
“I’m not leaving yet.”
“Claire.”
May you like
“Dad, there’s more happening.”
“I don’t care.”
