"It's okay." I blot at the spill with my napkin. "No harm done."
“It’s time for the kids to go to bed.” Edith gets up and snaps her fingers at Lulu. “Can you get them all to bed? Mia, let Lulu take care of Ellie.”
I kiss my niece. Probably the last time I will. My heart twists a little as I hand her over to Lulu.
“But, Mama, we haven’t eaten dessert,” Nelson Jr. cries out.
“Enough,” Nelson snarls.
Poor Nelson Jr. shrinks, as does Carla.
I hate this man with everything inside of me.
Once the kids have been sent away, Nelson is back at the not-so-subtle art of humiliating his children.
“How much did you get out of the Lancaster Group, Aiden?” he asks.
My husband straightens in his chair like he’s a student in the principal’s office. “Closed at two-fifty. Plus, performance incentives tied to Q3.”
Nelson raises an eyebrow. “Only two-fifty?”
“It was a conservative bid. They were looking elsewhere?—”
Nelson scoffs. “They were looking elsewhere because they weren’t convinced you had the leverage to close.”
Aiden’s jaw tics, but he says nothing.
Nelson swirls his wine. “You know, if I’d been running point, we’d have walked away with three-fifty and a seat on their board. But hey—nice try.”
The silence that follows is brutal.
Gianna looks away. Tristan pretends to check his phone. No one comes to Aiden’s defense. No one ever does. It’s sad because everyone knows that Nelson sucked at running the company and that the family’s finances are healthy because of Aiden, and yet, he’s trampled over without a care.
Nelson leans back, satisfied. “Your generation’s big on ‘trying your best,’ isn’t it? You can hang a participation ribbon in your office next to your MBA.”
I glance at my husband. His posture is perfect, his jaw set, the muscle in his cheek twitching. He looks calm to everyone else.
But I know better. He’s shrinking—just like he always has under his father’s thumb. For a moment, I almost feel sorry for him.
“We’ll do better with the next one, I’m sure,” Diana chimes. “We have a meeting with Sherman Financial, and I know we can make that big. Right, darling?”
My feeling of almost being sorry for him turns into a ‘screw him’, regardless of the fact that Aiden doesn’t seem happy about how Diana is dropping the word ‘darling’ like pigeons drop shit on rooftops.
“Sherman Financial is fucking with you. They always ask for a meeting and then, last minute, go with someone else.” Nelson downed his wine.
Tristan then decides to say his piece, and then Patrick and…I zone them out,again.
My phone buzzes.
I slip it out from my pocket under the table and glance at the screen.
Katya:Merry Christmas, babe. Hope you're holding up. I just finished dinner with my mom. Cristiano is in Stowe. He's waiting on your signal. He'll pick you up and take you to his place. You won't be alone tonight. Love you.
Katya is with her mother, and I wish I were with them. I am sure that eating in the assisted living facility's dining room would be more comfortable than this shitshow.
Since she can’t drive me out of Bliss after I’m done with my show and tell, she recruited Cristiano Rivas. A friend of hers from law school. He’s general counsel for a large non-profit and owns a beautiful oldfarmhouse close to Bliss. I know him well—the three of us often hang out together.
There’s a text from him as well, telling me to let him know when I’ll be ready to leave, and he’ll be there within ten minutes. I hate inconveniencing him but Katya was adamant that either I accept Cristiano’s help or she’d cancel Christmas with her mother.
