“No one handed my son anything,” Beatrice would say at dinner parties. I felt a coldness move through me every time she spoke because I was the one who had handed him everything.
I decided to prepare a full disclosure packet to show Simon the truth about my holdings. I didn’t want to punish him, but I wanted to live in a room where he finally had to meet the real me.
I bought a midnight blue silk dress for the gala, imagining a quiet conversation after the awards. I never imagined I would be standing in a hallway holding his phone after hearing him laugh about my ignorance.
I drove home through the city traffic and realized that the purpose of the evening had changed. I put on my diamond earrings and prepared for the gala with a sense of cold efficiency.
My attorney called to ask which version of the disclosure packet I wanted him to finalize. “The amended one,” I told him, knowing that the marriage was now a legal matter rather than a romantic one.
The gala was held in the atrium of the very building Simon had designed on my land. The room smelled of expensive perfume and champagne, and light washed the crowd in gold from the glass ceiling.