Chương 11
“I can change my mind?”
“Yes.”
“You promise?”
Richard’s throat tightened.
“Yes.”
“Even if lawyers say stuff?”
Mara raised one hand.
“I am feeling unfairly attacked.”
Lily looked at her.
Mara lowered the hand.
Richard said, “Even if lawyers say stuff.”
Lily held out her pinky.
Richard stared at it.
“What?”
“It’s a promise.”
“I know what it is.”
“Then do it.”
Richard hooked his little finger around hers.
“Ridiculous,” he muttered.
“My mom said you hate ridiculous things.”
“She was extremely talkative about me.”
“She was.”
The court approved guardianship in late April.
There was no dramatic speech.
No reporters.
No applause.
The judge asked Lily questions in chambers with Denise present.
Richard waited outside and disliked every minute.
When Lily emerged, she was eating a mint.
“What did she ask you?” he said.
Lily looked at Denise.
Denise smiled.
Richard corrected himself.
“Never mind.”
“Good.”
The judge signed the order.
Richard became Lily’s legal guardian.
He had expected to feel triumphant.
Instead he felt afraid.
Paper had made him responsible for someone whose mother he had already failed.
Mara handed him a copy.
“Congratulations.”
Richard looked at the signature.
“This is terrifying.”
“That means you’re reading it correctly.”
They did move.
Not immediately.
Richard kept the large house but stopped pretending it had to be home.
He bought nothing.
Instead he rented a smaller house for a year in a neighborhood near Lily’s school.
It had four bedrooms, which Lily considered excessive, and three bathrooms, which she considered barely acceptable.
The security arrangements remained, but discreetly.
One officer lived nearby.
Another handled transportation when necessary.
Lily complained anyway.
Richard told her she was welcome to become less kidnapping-prone.
She told him that had happened one time.
Gloria remained in their lives.
So did Denise for several months.
Victoria did too, eventually.
Not closely.
Not comfortably.
She found work at a nonprofit unaffiliated with the Hale family, several levels below her old title.
Richard did not arrange it.
He made sure not to.
When Victoria told him over coffee, he asked twice whether she was certain nobody had called on his behalf.
She stared at him.
“This must be exhausting.”
“What?”
“Learning not to control oxygen.”
He almost smiled.
Their relationship did not heal neatly.
Some months they spoke.
Some they did not.
Lily sent Victoria a birthday card because Gloria reminded her.
Inside she wrote:
I’m still deciding.
Victoria kept it on her desk.
A year after the ballroom incident, the Hale Foundation held its winter benefit in the same hotel.
Richard had considered moving the event.
Lily told him not to.
“That’s dramatic.”
“What is?”
“Changing the whole hotel because of one bad night.”
“It was more than one bad night.”
“It was also a hotel.”
Richard conceded the point.
He asked if she wanted to attend.
Lily said no.
Then yes.
Then no again.
On the afternoon of the event she came home from school, threw her backpack onto a chair, and announced, “I’m going for dessert.”
Richard looked up from his laptop.
“That seems principled.”
“I don’t care.”
She wore a dark blue dress Gloria had helped choose.
No diamonds.
No special shoes.
Her pale sneakers were clean now, though she had refused three attempts to replace them until the soles finally split.
The silver heart-shaped locket rested above her collar instead of beneath it.
Richard wore his black suit.
Before they left, Lily stopped him in the hallway.
“Where’s the coat?”
“What coat?”
She stared at him.
“The coat.”
Richard smiled.
The charcoal cashmere coat hung in the closet.
It had been cleaned twice, repaired once, and permanently shortened by a tailor after Lily decided it belonged to her.
She put it on.
It reached her knees now instead of nearly touching the floor.
“You realize,” Richard said, “that was a very expensive coat.”
“You gave it away.”
“I was emotional.”
“Bad business decision.”
“Terrible.”
They rode to the hotel together.
Richard’s security officer opened the car door.
Lily stepped onto the sidewalk and looked up at the same glass entrance she had entered alone the year before.
Richard did not touch her.
He waited.
Lily adjusted the coat.
“You ready?” he asked.
“No.”
He nodded.
“Me neither.”
They went inside anyway.
The ballroom looked almost unchanged.
Crystal chandeliers.
Gold columns.
White flowers.
Champagne tables.
Polished marble.
For a moment Lily’s body remembered before her mind did.
Her stomach tightened.
She saw the apple rolling.
The bread beneath the shoe.
Victoria’s green dress.
Your mother isn’t coming back.
Richard noticed her stop.
He did not ask whether she was all right.
He simply stood beside her.
Across the room, Gloria waved with both hands.
Mara stood nearby holding a glass of wine and speaking to Denise, who had been invited as a guest and looked deeply uncomfortable in formal clothing.
Lily smiled.
Then she saw Victoria.
Victoria stood near one of the columns.
She wore black.
Their eyes met.
Victoria did not approach.
She gave Lily a small nod.
Lily considered her.
Then nodded back.
Nothing more.
Richard leaned slightly closer.
“Dessert?”
“Obviously.”
They walked toward the tables.
A waiter offered Lily a plate.
She chose chocolate cake, strawberries, and two rolls.
Richard looked at the rolls.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“I like bread.”
“I did not say anything.”
“You were thinking.”
“Apparently that is still permitted.”
Lily took an apple from a fruit display.
Richard raised an eyebrow.
She polished it against the sleeve of his old coat.
“Don’t.”
“You said coats can be cleaned.”
“I regret teaching you anything.”
Lily grinned.
They carried their plates toward a smaller table near the edge of the ballroom.
Halfway there, a little boy in an uncomfortable suit ran past his mother and bumped Lily’s arm.
Her apple fell.
It hit the marble.
Rolled between polished shoes.
Stopped beneath a champagne table.
Lily froze.
Richard did too.
Several adults glanced down.
For one strange second, the entire year seemed to fold inward.
Then Richard handed Lily his plate.
He crouched beneath the table in his perfectly tailored suit.
A woman stepped aside.
Someone laughed softly.
Richard reached for the apple.
When he stood, there was dust on one knee of his trousers.
He wiped the apple against his sleeve and handed it back.
Lily looked at the smear on his jacket.
“You ruined your suit.”
“It’ll be cleaned.”
She took the apple.
Across the ballroom, nobody bowed.
Nobody went silent.
Nobody needed to.
The orchestra kept playing.
Glasses touched.
A waiter dropped a fork.
Victoria was talking quietly to Gloria now, both of them awkward, neither pretending otherwise.
Richard picked up his plate.
Lily bit into the apple.
The slice was thick because she had not cut it at all.
She chewed, looked around the enormous room, and decided it was only a room.
Then she reached for Richard’s hand.
May you like
He looked down at their fingers.
He did not tighten his grip until she did first.
