Chapter 6 - The Dressing Suite Door Would Not Stay Open
The hallway narrowed near the end where the music from the ballroom went thin. There was a door with a brass plate that said Private, and a long mirror opposite it that made the four of us look stacked in two lines. Marcello had his hand light on Lily's shoulder, not holding, just there. The blonde woman stopped in front of that door like she had been counting steps to it.
I could still feel the weight of my tray from downstairs, though I had left it on the service cart. My left arm kept wanting to lift. My pearls felt too tight. The air up here was warmer and smelled like hairspray and clean towels.
She turned and tried to smile. "This is ridiculous," she said. "If we are doing this, then it is just Marcello and me."
That was the first clear move she had made since Lily spoke in the ballroom. No nervous laugh. She reached for the inside lock before we were even all the way in, her fingers already finding it.
I stepped forward with Lily. "No."
Marcello looked at me. The blonde woman looked at Marcello.
"I am not leaving her alone in this," I said. My voice sounded low to my own ears. "She's three. I'm her mother. I stay."
The woman shook her head fast. "She's upset. She'll make it worse. Send her with—" She stopped herself because there was no one else. The hall was empty. She changed it. "Marcello, please. This is private. You know how these rumors start."
Marcello did not answer right away. He looked at the door, then at Lily, who was pressed against my leg and staring up at the woman's belly in that magenta gown. Her hand was still on it, fingers spread wide.
"Maya stays," he said. "As a witness. For both of us. That's fair."
The woman's mouth tightened. For a second I thought she would walk back downstairs and take the scene with her. Instead she pushed the dressing suite door open and went in first, to claim it.
The suite was small and too bright after the hallway. A vanity with bulbs around the mirror, a garment rack with a spare jacket, a low couch with a folded throw, a bathroom door cracked open. Cream curtains pulled shut over a narrow window. The same golden light, but closer. It made the satin of her gown shine hard.
She went straight to the center rug and turned to face us. She did not sit. She paced two steps one way, two steps back, her heels sinking a little. Her right hand never left her belly. She smoothed it, cupped under it, rested on top of it.
"Lock it," she said to Marcello.
Marcello closed the door but left his hand on the knob. "We will close it," he said. "We don't need to lock Lily in."
"You said private," I said.
He clicked the latch shut without turning the deadbolt. The sound was enough to change the room. Lily flinched and grabbed my dress with both hands.
I knelt just enough to get my face near hers. "I'm right here," I whispered. "You stay by me."
She nodded, but she did not look at me. She watched the woman pace.
Marcello stayed by the door. "Okay," he said quietly. "We're here. No one else. Tell us what happened upstairs."
The woman laughed once, short. "Nothing happened upstairs. Your — her daughter wandered where she should not have been and saw a dress adjustment and made a story. She's only three."
Lily pulled my skirt. "I didn't misunderstand," she said, clear and stubborn.
I put my hand on her back to steady her. I could feel her little ribs through the velvet of her dress with the white trim.
"Then explain it," Marcello said to the woman. "What did she see fall?"
The woman kept pacing. Two steps. Turn. Two steps. Her hand pressed harder into the magenta satin. She glanced at the bathroom door, at the garment rack, at the mirror, anywhere but at Lily.
"I don't have to explain padding to catering staff," she said.
My face went hot, but I didn't move. Marcello's jaw shifted.
"You have to explain it to me," he said.
May you like
She stopped at the vanity and gripped its edge. In the mirror I could see her eyes meet mine for a half second before she looked away. Lily leaned harder into my leg.
Outside, far below, the band started another song. No one in this room moved to the music.
