Chapter 10: You Were Supposed To Know
The dressing suite was too quiet. I could hear the air coming through the vent and the clock ticking on the wall and my own breathing.
Richard was sitting on the edge of the little couch now, not kneeling anymore. He had the photo in one hand and the ring sitting in his palm in the other. The cloth I'd wrapped it in was bunched up next to him. His shoulders were hunched forward like he was trying to hold something heavy without dropping it.
Vivian stood by the door. She hadn't moved since he read the letter out loud. Her hands were still clasped tight in front of her burgundy dress and her necklace caught the light every time she breathed.
I didn't understand all of what the letter meant but I understood his face. Mom had said he would look like that if he ever really knew. Like someone had finally told him.
I looked right at him. My throat felt dry and the cloth was still damp where I'd been holding it.
"Mom said you were supposed to know the truth," I said.
He lifted his head and looked at me. His eyes were red around the edges.
"I know, honey," he said softly. "I know she did."
Vivian made a small sound and stepped forward a little. Her heels clicked on the floor.
"Richard," she said. Her voice was low and careful, like she was trying not to scare me but she was talking to him. "Please. Think about what you're doing. There are two hundred donors out there. The press table. The foundation board."
He didn't answer right away. He just kept looking at me.
She kept going, her hands twisting now. "We can handle this properly. Privately. Lawyers. A DNA test tomorrow morning, quietly, with discretion. No one needs to see this tonight. We can make sure she's safe and taken care of without turning the gala into a spectacle."
I didn't know what discretion meant but I knew what privately meant. Mom had told me what would happen if they tried to keep me private. She said private meant hidden.
Richard rubbed his thumb over the ring. He looked down at it, then at the photo again.
"Vivian," he said. "Caroline wrote to me seven years ago. You saw that letter."
"We don't know that I did," she said quickly. "That envelope could have gone anywhere. The office, the mailroom—"
"You forwarded her mail to storage," he said. It wasn't loud. It wasn't a yell. He just said it plain. "You told me you managed it so I could focus on the campaign."
She went very still. Her mouth opened and then closed. The color in her cheeks got higher.
"I was protecting us," she whispered. She glanced at me and then back at him. "Richard, please don't do this in front of everyone. Not like this. Let me call Mark. Let him arrange a car. We can talk at home."
I felt my hands start to shake a little so I pressed them into the gray shawl. The ballroom music was still going on the other side of the wall, muffled, with people laughing far away.
Richard stood up slowly. He set the photo down carefully on the little table next to the couch. He held the ring out toward me.
"Ellie," he said, "this is yours. Your mom gave it to you."
I held out my hand and he placed it in my palm. It was still warm from his hand. I folded the off-white cloth back around it the way Mom taught me, tucking the corners in tight.
He put his hand on my shoulder, just light, not squeezing.
"I'm not sending you out a side door," he said. He was looking at Vivian when he said it. "I'm not having lawyers meet you in a parking lot before I've even stood next to you where people can see you."
Vivian's hands dropped to her sides. "You'll humiliate us," she said, and her voice cracked on the last word. "Do you understand what they'll say tomorrow?"
"I understand I missed seven years because a letter was hidden," he said. "I'm not hiding tonight."
He looked down at me then and I had to tip my head way back to see his face.
"Are you okay to walk back in there with me?" he asked me. "You don't have to say anything. You just stay right by me. Okay?"
I nodded. My hair fell forward and I didn't brush it away.
He glanced toward the door where the ballroom noise was. "It's loud in there and there's a lot of people. But you hold my hand and we go together. Before the night ends."
Vivian didn't move to open the door. She just stared at him, her eyes shiny. But she didn't block it either. She stepped back one step, her back almost touching the wall, her necklace shaking a little with her breath.
Richard held out his hand to me, palm up.
I tucked the cloth with the ring safe against my chest with my left hand and put my right hand in his.
May you like
His hand was big and warm and he closed his fingers around mine carefully, like he was afraid to hold too tight.
We stood there like that for a second, facing the closed door, listening to the party on the other side.
