Chương 6
The room divided its attention between them.
It had always done that during their marriage.
The difference was that Khloe no longer mistook attention for power.
She finished the evening by thanking the donors whose contributions had cleared, the hospital staff who had attended, and the employees who would spend Sunday answering questions they had not created.
The applause was smaller than before.
It meant more.
At one in the morning, the ballroom smelled of extinguished candles, wilting roses, and spilled wine. Staff rolled tables toward the service elevators. A woman in black work shoes vacuumed silver confetti from beneath Julian’s abandoned chair.
Khloe sat on the edge of the stage with her heels beside her.
Gabriel returned carrying two paper cups.
“Tea,” he said. “The kitchen had something called calming lavender.”
“That sounds threatening.”
“I also brought hot water in case it tastes like soap.”
She took the cup. It did taste slightly like soap, but it was warm.
They sat without speaking.
Her phone continued vibrating inside her clutch. She ignored it.
“Was tonight a disaster?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She looked at him.
He drank his tea.
“Thank you for your tenderness.”
“You also raised nine million dollars, suspended a questionable pledge, and prevented the board from spending money it did not have.”
“So a productive disaster.”
“The best kind.”
A cleaning employee passed them with a transparent bag full of broken centerpiece stems. She nodded politely, uninterested in their names.
Khloe watched her cross the ballroom.
“I almost answered Julian,” she said.
“About the baby?”
“I wanted to humiliate him.”
Gabriel considered this. “You did not.”
“I wanted to.”
“That makes you a person.”
“I have been told the condition is chronic.”
He smiled faintly.
She looked down at her belly. Beneath the velvet, the baby shifted once and became still.
“After my last treatment failed,” she said, “Julian told me maybe we were being prevented from making a mistake.”
Gabriel’s cup stopped halfway to his mouth.
“He said he didn’t mean it the next day. He bought flowers. White peonies. I hated white peonies for two years, which was inconvenient because everyone kept sending them.”
Gabriel set down his tea.
Khloe stared across the emptying hall.
“I should have left then.”
“Perhaps.”
She looked at him, surprised by the answer.
He shrugged. “You dislike false reassurance.”
“I do.”
“Then perhaps you should have left. But you did not. That does not make what he said your fault.”
Her throat tightened.
She bent to put on her shoes, then decided against it.
“Will your investment committee panic?”
“Yes.”
“Will you?”
“I schedule panic for Tuesday mornings.”
She laughed quietly.
At two-fifteen, he drove her home.
He did not come upstairs.
That mattered to her, though she could not have explained why.
By seven the next morning, Julian’s question in the ballroom had been viewed twelve million times.
Someone had isolated the moment his eyes reached her belly, added captions, and slowed Dalia’s reaction. News sites embedded the clip beside photographs of Khloe and Gabriel entering together. Commentators debated the child’s father, Julian’s manners, Dalia’s expression, Khloe’s gown, and whether a pregnant woman should wear velvet in June.
The missing pledge appeared in the fourth paragraph of most articles.
By nine, it was the headline.
Khloe sat at her kitchen table in an old gray robe, eating toast with too much butter. Mae stood at the counter making coffee and insulting television hosts by name.
“Why do men with square haircuts always use the phrase ‘optics problem’?” she asked.
Khloe scrolled through the board’s emergency messages.
“Because ‘I have nothing useful to say’ takes longer.”
Mae placed a mug beside her. She was thirty-four, a public-school art teacher, and the only person Khloe permitted to enter her apartment using the emergency key for nonemergencies.
“You look tired.”
“Everyone has become very observant since I became pregnant.”
“You looked tired before. I was simply less concerned about your blood volume.”
Khloe pushed the coffee away.
“I’m not supposed to have that much caffeine.”
“It’s decaf.”
“It smells real.”
“That’s because I lied. It’s half-caf.”
“Mae.”
“You need enough caffeine to remain civil and not enough to produce a tap-dancing infant.”
Khloe ate another piece of toast.
On television, a financial reporter announced that Duval Nexus had delayed the opening of Monday trading pending a corporate update. Julian’s company denied liquidity problems and described the gala issue as a routine transfer dispute caused by enhanced fraud controls.
Khloe paused.
“Enhanced fraud controls,” she repeated.
Mae sat across from her. “Is that a lie?”
“It is a sentence designed to survive until another sentence replaces it.”
Her phone rang.
Dr. Elise Navarro’s name appeared on the screen.
Khloe answered quickly.
“Good morning,” Dr. Navarro said. “Before you panic, your appointment is still tomorrow and your results remain normal.”
“I wasn’t panicking.”
“You answered on the first ring.”
“I am efficient.”
“I saw the news.”
Khloe closed her eyes.
“The baby is not on the news.”
“Your blood pressure may be. Avoid the television, drink water, and call if you have cramping, bleeding, dizziness, or anything that concerns you.”
“Does rage count?”
“Only if accompanied by dizziness.”
Mae mouthed, I like her.
Dr. Navarro continued. “You are allowed to cancel tomorrow’s appointment if there are reporters.”
“No.”
“Good. Then use the private garage entrance. My staff will meet you.”
After the call, Khloe put down the phone.
Mae spread jam across toast. “Have you told anyone the baby was donor-conceived?”
“No.”
“Are you going to?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Khloe looked at her.
Mae shrugged. “I support transparency in charitable finance. I do not support democracy in your uterus.”
The board meeting began at eleven by secure video call.
Anna joined from her apartment with her silver hair wet. Charles appeared from the gala hotel, still wearing his formal shirt beneath a cardigan. Two hospital representatives, three attorneys, Gabriel, and six board members filled the screen.
May you like
Julian’s chair remained empty.
His lawyer joined in his place.
