PART 44
Callum removed his boutonniere.
Fiona stared.
“What are you doing?”
“I need air.”
She grabbed his arm.
“You can’t leave.”
He looked at her.
“Your family just turned our wedding into a crime scene.”
Dad snapped,
“Don’t be dramatic.”
Callum laughed.
It sounded almost hysterical.
“You gave a speech humiliating your daughter after your other daughter paid someone to throw wine on her.”
Then he looked at Mom.
“And apparently part of my wedding was funded with fraudulent trust money.”
He pulled away.
“I think dramatic left an hour ago.”
PART 45
Fiona started crying.
Real tears now.
Not sympathy.
Fear.
She looked at me.
“Mabel.”
I waited.
“You’re not actually going to do anything.”
That was the most revealing sentence of the night.
Not sorry.
Not I was wrong.
Not I cannot believe we did this.
You’re not actually going to do anything.
Because for years, I had not.
PART 46
I smiled faintly.
“That version of me is gone.”
Her face changed.
“What does that mean?”
I looked toward Gabriel.
He nodded.
The ballroom doors opened again.
Two attorneys entered.
One was mine.
Sarah Whitmore.
The other represented the family trust.
Fiona stopped breathing for a second.
Dad whispered,
“No.”
PART 47
Sarah walked toward us.
She carried three envelopes.
She handed the first to Mom.
“Margaret Hart.”
Mom refused to take it.
Sarah placed it on the table.
“Notice of emergency trust suspension pending investigation.”
The second went to Dad.
“Notice concerning disputed collateral representation and demand for records.”
The third went to Fiona.
She stared.
“What is that?”
Sarah answered.
“Preservation notice regarding communications related to tonight’s incident.”
PART 48
Fiona laughed weakly.
“You’re suing me over wine?”
Sarah looked at her.
“No.”
“We are preserving evidence.”
“Whether additional action follows depends on facts.”
Fiona turned to me.
“You’re insane.”
I said nothing.
Damian did.
“No.”
“She’s patient.”
That shut Fiona up.
PART 49
Dad looked around the ballroom.
For the first time, he saw what he had actually created.
Three hundred guests.
Phones out.
Business associates whispering.
Family members staring.
The Boston society crowd he had spent years trying to impress.
All watching him unravel.
He had wanted an audience.
He got one.
PART 50
Mom grabbed my arm.
“Mabel.”
Damian moved immediately.
I lifted one hand.
He stopped.
I looked at Mom’s fingers on my skin.
“Let go.”
She did.
Her voice broke.
“We’re your family.”
I almost laughed.
“Now?”
She started crying.
“We made mistakes.”
“No.”
“You made choices.”
PART 51
That distinction mattered to me.
A mistake is forgetting a birthday.
Sending the wrong invitation.
Ordering the wrong flowers.
Paying a waiter to humiliate someone is a choice.
Forging trust documents is a choice.
Pledging someone else’s property interest is a choice.
Using a microphone to publicly degrade your daughter is a choice.
My family had spent years calling choices mistakes whenever consequences appeared.
Not anymore.
PART 52
Damian turned to the venue manager.
“Does my wife have somewhere private to change?”
“Yes, sir.”
“A bridal suite upstairs.”
Fiona snapped,
“That’s mine.”
The manager looked miserable.
Damian did not even glance at her.
“Another room.”
The manager nodded immediately.
“Of course.”
PART 53
I looked at Fiona.
“You can keep your suite.”
Her face flushed.
“I don’t want anything from you.”
She shouted it too loudly.
I looked at the ballroom.
“That appears to be untrue.”
She followed my eyes.
Everything around us had become evidence of money she had accepted.
She looked away.
PART 54
Damian escorted me upstairs.
Gabriel followed at a distance.
Inside the private room, the door closed.
For the first time all evening, I was alone with my husband.
He turned toward me.
Then his expression cracked.
“Are you okay?”
I sat down.
“No.”
That was the truth.
He crouched in front of me.
“You held yourself together down there.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t mean you have to here.”
My eyes filled.
