“I look forward to working with you again in the future.”
I took it, knowing I passed some kind of test in his eyes, but when I walked out of his office, I couldn’t find it in me to care. For the first time since I’d started pursuing my dream, since MaineStems was just a seed starting to sprout, its success wasn’t at the front of my mind. Only she was.
My wife.
“And what is this regarding?”The suited secretary looked at me, his expression permanently wrinkled with displeasure that I’d shown up to Mr. McCormick’s office without an appointment.
“His son and grandchild.”
That earned a flicker of recognition.
The McCormicks could try all they wanted to keep the drama of Todd’s disappearance under wraps, but there was no hiding that he walked out on a wedding. That they’d been forced to postpone the grand wedding reception they planned without even asking Todd or Daisy.That he hadn’t shown up since.
“One moment, Mr. Hamilton. Let me check if Mr. McCormick can see you.”
He would. Mary might’ve given me a hard time, but Todd Sr. would see me.
This was the real reason I left the house so early this morning.
To end this.
I waited impatiently in the hall while he went to check with Mr. McCormick, the walls claustrophobic with formal portraits of the McCormick family going back generations. Even Todd’s photo hung among them, though it looked nothing like my childhood friend. I doubted any of them did. They weren’t supposed to.
The portraits were commissioned to show how they wanted people to see them, not how they actually were. The oldest kind of filter for the rich and powerful. Even the one of Mr. and Mrs. McCormick, smiling together…a show. They weren’t happy. And they weren’t together.
Few people knew that Todd’s parents lived mostly separately. They did their best to hide it from the world because they were more powerful together.
For all the time I’d spent in their orbit, even I hadn’t known until a few years ago, when Todd let it slip, and only because he’d been drinking. Even for all the times he hated them, hated what they’d done to him, he never broke rank. Never betrayed the family image.
“Right this way, Mr. Hamilton.”
His secretary led us along a rope of hallways, past Mr. McCormick’s office that I’d been in a handful of times over the years, to the back corridor of the brownstone and into the more private rooms.
Wordlessly, he opened a door and announced, “Mr. Hamilton for you.”
He shared a look with his younger secretary, and I had to wonder…
“Thanks, Jackson.”
The door closed us in together.
“Max.”
“Mr. McCormick.” I walked up to his desk.
He motioned for me to take a chair, but I refused.
“What can I do for you?”
I braced my stance. “You can tell your wife to never speak to my wife again.”
His eyes sparked. I wondered when the last time someone had spoken to him like this. He had the decency to shift uncomfortably before insisting, “I’m sorry, Max, but that’s our grandchild, and it needs?—”
“She, not it,” I snapped, never feeling more pity for Todd than I did at this moment.
McCormick waved me off like it was a moot point.
“There are certain expectations for this family, Max. I don’t expect you to understand, but unfortunately, if you are going to stay married to Daisy, you won’t have a choice. There is a certain way our granddaughter needs to be raised.”
