Chapter 7 - The Intermission of Insults
While Isabella was preparing her speech,
the cousin sitting next to me at Table 42 leaned in.
"It must be hard for you,"
she whispered,
her voice dripping with a fake,
saccharine sympathy.
"To see all this and know you walked away from it."
"I mean,
look at Walter's table,"
"the flowers alone cost five thousand dollars."
I looked at the centerpieces,
white lilies that would be dead by morning.
"It's just a room,
Cynthia,"
I said,
my voice calm.
"Rooms don't make people."
"Oh,
you always were so philosophical,"
she sighed,
turning back to her husband.
"It’s a shame,
really,"
"you could have been the one standing up there,
if you'd just listened to your father."
I thought about the night in the rain.
I thought about the suitcases.
If I had listened to Walter,
I would be married to Scott Parker,
a man who was currently on his third divorce and facing a federal investigation for tax fraud.
I would be miserable,
living in a mansion of lies,
pretending that I was happy while I died slowly inside.
Instead,
I had the stars on my shoulders.
Instead,
I had the respect of thousands of men and women who would follow me into the fire.
I looked at Walter,
who was laughing at a joke made by a senator.
He looked so powerful in this room,
but in the real world,
he was just a man who moved money around.
He didn't know how to navigate by the stars.
He didn't know how to keep a ship afloat in a storm.
He didn't know how to love a daughter who didn't fit his mold.
Shane looked over at me and raised his glass in a mocking toast.
"Enjoy the caviar,
Ruth!"
he shouted across the tables.
"It’s the closest you’ll ever get to the big leagues!"
A few people at the neighboring tables snickered,
enjoying the public humiliation of the Foley ghost.
They thought they were the big leagues.
They thought that because they had a tuxedo and a ticket to the Grand Bellevue,
they were the masters of the universe.
They had no idea that the "big leagues" were currently parked twenty miles away in the harbor.
They had no idea that the woman they were laughing at had the power to shut down this entire city with a single order.
Isabella’s voice cut through the laughter,
bringing the room back to attention.
The microphone hummed,
catching the sharpness of her tone.
She wasn't smiling anymore.
May you like
She was focused,
her eyes fixed on me.
