Chương 10
Celeste pressed both hands flat against the table.
“I had spent two years feeling like there were three people in our marriage. Every argument became about your mother. Every decision needed her approval even when you insisted it didn’t. When she disappeared, you fell apart, and I hated myself because some part of me was relieved.”
Margaret looked down.
Celeste’s voice thinned.
“Then I found out she was alive.”
She swallowed.
“And the relief became terror.”
Richard said nothing.
“I thought if I told you, you’d go back to her. Not romantically, obviously. Emotionally. You’d forgive everything because grief had made her perfect. And I would become the woman who had kept the correction from you for three days.”
“Instead you became the woman who kept her from me for twelve years.”
“Yes.”
There was no defense in it.
Richard gripped the back of his chair.
Celeste turned to Margaret.
“I hated you.”
Margaret looked at her.
“I know.”
“You made me feel cheap.”
“I know.”
“You looked at me like I was a dress he would eventually stop wearing.”
Margaret flinched.
That sounded like something she could have conveyed without saying it.
Celeste continued.
“I wanted one year without you. Then one year became two. After that, telling the truth would have destroyed everything.”
Margaret’s voice was quiet.
“So you let it destroy everything later.”
Celeste nodded.
“Yes.”
Richard looked toward the windows.
Traffic moved far below.
Nobody in the conference room seemed to know what came after honesty because popular stories often skipped that part.
The confession did not create peace.
It created paperwork.
Richard removed Celeste from any role in his family foundation pending formal governance review. Their attorneys began negotiating separation. Staff who had participated in blocking Margaret’s communications were interviewed. Some remembered. Some claimed not to. One cried. Another became defensive and said she had only followed instructions.
There was discussion of civil claims.
There was discussion of the physical incident at the gala.
There was discussion of whether any false statements or documents crossed legal lines that required outside reporting.
Margaret left most of that to Denise.
She refused to turn herself into a full-time project.
Richard struggled with that.
“You don’t want consequences?”
“I want appropriate consequences.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t know yet, and neither do you.”
“She stole twelve years.”
Margaret stared at him.
“No.”
He looked angry.
“She helped steal them. You and I contributed.”
“That is not the same.”
“I know.”
Margaret leaned forward.
“Do not make her so evil that you don’t have to look at yourself.”
Richard stood up.
“That’s unfair.”
“Yes.”
“You keep saying that like it excuses you.”
“It doesn’t.”
His face reddened.
“Why do you keep protecting her?”
Margaret rose too.
“I am not protecting her.”
“You stop me every time I—”
“I am stopping you from turning rage into innocence.”
Richard stared.
Margaret’s breathing shook now, and she hated it.
“You were my son. Not my property. I punished you every time you chose differently than I wanted. Celeste used that fracture. She did not invent it.”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“And that makes what she did acceptable?”
“No.”
“Then stop saying it.”
“I will not.”
They stood facing each other.
Margaret’s hands trembled.
Richard looked at them.
His anger disappeared.
He sat first.
Margaret remained standing for a moment because sitting immediately felt like losing.
Then she realized how ridiculous that was and sat down.
After a while, Richard said, “I don’t know how to be angry at both of us.”
“Practice.”
He gave her a look.
“You’re enjoying this.”
“Only a little.”
That evening he ordered Chinese food.
Margaret hated the sesame noodles.
Richard ate them anyway because he had ordered too much.
They watched half of an old detective movie and argued over which actor had been in another film.
Neither checked.
The next morning, Margaret moved out of the executive apartment.
Richard objected.
She ignored him.
With Denise’s help, she rented a small furnished apartment in Queens for three months while deciding what she wanted to do.
Richard offered to buy her a townhouse.
Margaret laughed until he became offended.
“I have one suitcase.”
“I can buy you furniture.”
“That is exactly the disease I’m avoiding.”
“What disease?”
“Square footage.”
He did not understand the joke.
Nora did.
She visited Margaret one Sunday afternoon carrying grocery-store flowers and a dented bakery box.
“I brought lemon cake.”
Margaret opened the box.
One corner had collapsed.
“Perfect.”
“I dropped it on the subway.”
“More authentic.”
Nora had returned to work.
Her first event back was a pharmaceutical dinner where nothing happened except a guest complaining about cold risotto.
“I almost cried from relief,” Nora said.
Margaret made coffee.
They sat by the window.
The new apartment overlooked a laundromat and the elevated train.
Richard hated the noise.
Margaret liked knowing when trains passed.
Nora looked at the repaired locket lying beside the sugar bowl.
“Do you still wear it?”
“Sometimes.”
“Not today.”
“It feels heavy now.”
Nora nodded.
She did not ask what that meant.
Margaret appreciated her more for that.
After coffee, Nora said, “People keep emailing me.”
“Who?”
“News shows. Podcasts. Brands.”
Margaret frowned.
“Brands?”
“One offered me free serving trays.”
Margaret stared.
Nora started laughing.
“What?”
“That is the stupidest sentence I’ve heard this month.”
“I know.”
“Did you take them?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
Nora shrugged.
“I don’t want to become Tray Girl.”
“You’re twenty-nine. You could do worse.”
Nora pulled a face.
Margaret cut the damaged cake.
After a while Nora asked, “Do you forgive her?”
Margaret knew who she meant.
“No.”
“Do you think you will?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about Richard?”
Margaret looked toward the window.
A train thundered past.
“I don’t think forgiveness is one thing.”
Nora waited.
Margaret frowned.
“I hate when old people say things like that.”
Nora smiled.
“You are an old person.”
“Get out.”
Nora laughed.
Margaret gave her another piece of cake.
May you like
Richard came on Tuesdays.
At first he arrived with gifts.
