Chapter 10 - A Glass Parking Lot Conversation
I didn't stay at the kids' table even though Ellis told me to.
The cocktail hour had started and the servers were clearing salad plates, and the donor crowd got louder by the bar. Ellis had pulled a small chair up for me near the service hallway, half hidden by a white tablecloth, and he'd crouched down and said, "You stay right here for five, okay?" I nodded, but when I saw Dad's hand on Lorraine's elbow, I stood up.
He didn't make a show of it. He leaned in and said something close to her ear, and she smiled for the people watching, that tight smile she used for photos, and then he guided her toward the side doors that led to the terrace. The glass doors reflected the chandelier light, and outside I could see the dark parking lot and the wet asphalt shining under the lot lights. Ellis glanced at me, and I tugged his suit sleeve the way I had at dinner.
"Please," I whispered.
He looked at Dad's back, then at the door, and he didn't say no. He walked me to the edge of the dining room, just far enough that the heavy velvet curtain gave us cover but the glass was still cracked open two inches for air. The night air came in cold and smelled like rain and car exhaust.
On the terrace, Lorraine crossed her arms right away. The wind lifted the bottom of her black dress.
"I did it for us," she said. Her voice was low but sharp. I had to lean closer to hear. "You don't understand what your mother's trust does. Every dollar has a condition. Every appointment has her name on it. I took the card because that pass was going to go to her people, not ours. I wanted to divert it to our family, to something we could actually control."
Dad didn't move. He had his hands in his pockets. The light from the parking lot striped his face.
"Our family includes Emma," he said.
"I know that," she said quickly. "That's why I wanted a cushion. If we had discretionary access, we wouldn't have to ask your mother for permission every time we need a tutor or a dentist or a—"
"You told the staff she was staff," he said, and his voice stayed quiet. It wasn't loud, but it cut her off. "That's not protection, Lorraine. You didn't hide the card in a safe. You hid it in a vent in the dressing suite and you told Margaret and James to seat my daughter with the caterers. That was before anyone from the foundation even arrived tonight."
She sucked in a breath and looked away toward the parked cars. Her diamond bracelet caught the lot light.
"It was a stupid place to put it, I know," she said. "I panicked. Ellis was supposed to be downstairs. I thought if I could just hold it for one night and refile the authorization tomorrow morning under our joint name—"
"You told a six-year-old to be invisible so you could steal," he said. I felt Ellis's hand tighten lightly on my shoulder. "Don't tell me it was for her."
Lorraine stepped closer to him. Her arms were still crossed, but her shoulders dropped.
"Then let me fix it quietly," she said. "Give me the card back. I'll go to Mr. Keller and the others inside and say it was a mix-up. That I took the wrong clutch by mistake, that I found the pass and realized it belonged to the foundation. No harm done. We can laugh about it. Please, Julian, don't turn our marriage into a scandal in front of all these donors. Choose us."
For a second nobody said anything. A car door slammed out in the parking lot and someone laughed near the bar inside. Lorraine's eyes were wet now, but she wasn't crying the way I did. She was holding very still.
"Her word and what's in the safe are already truth," Dad said. "I opened the vent with her. I saw where you taped it. I have the photos Ellis took. If I let you walk back in there and say it was a mistake, I'm teaching my daughter that her chair is only hers when it's convenient for us."
"So what, you're going to humiliate me?" she whispered. "In front of everyone?"
"No," he said. "I'm not calling the sheriff tonight. I'm not making a scene on the ballroom floor. That's the line I'm giving you. But I'm not lying for you, either. We go back in, you don't touch that clutch, and tomorrow morning you sit with Mr. Keller and the foundation attorney and you tell them exactly what you did and why. No cover story."
Lorraine stared at him. The wind moved her ponytail. Then she gave a short, hard nod, not like she agreed but like she understood there was no other way out.
"And if I don't?" she asked.
"Then I tell them myself," Dad said. "With Emma next to me."
May you like
He reached for the door handle and pulled it open. The warm air from the dining room rushed out. He looked straight at the curtain where I was standing, like he knew I'd been there the whole time, and held his hand out, not to Lorraine, but past her, toward me.
I stepped out from behind the velvet.
