“Don’t worry, little one. Daddy’s got you.”
CHAPTER THREE
With family like this
STERLING
“STAND UP STRAIGHT and suck in your stomach. God, I don’t understand why you don’t get that under control.”
I was obedient and did exactly what I was directed to even if I was pissed at having to do it. Sitting around my family home in the Azurest subdivision of Sag Harbor I wondered why I was here. My place was in the south but I’d been summoned here at the behest of the family matriarch and I knew better than to decline her invitation. My grandmother was a woman who’d seen a lot in her day and whose spine had her surviving these eighty-five years she’d been on earth. She had no room in her heart for softness as she built her empire along with my grandfather and her children suffered a lot from it. My inability to sever these toxic ties had me waiting on the family to be seated so that I could take my spot at the dinner table. You could only be seated in age order and I was one of the youngest in the family that could sit at the adult table. The children were being fed in a different dining room with the stable of nannies that had been brought by the many cousins that were scattered around the dining room. I could name them all, even their spouses and their kids, but that was born more of necessity than familial love.
The family was seated at the dining table that had been purchased from one of the larger Gilded Age mansions that were summer retreats of the magnates who flooded the Hamptons when the railroad made it more easily accessible. The current family home had once been the largest Black-owned hotel on the island. Our family’s start in hospital allowed it to pivot into otheravenues. Once those ventures took off, the need for running the hotel became pointless and they reclaimed it as a private home.
“Sterling, love, what is currently going on in your part of the world?”
This barb was coming from my great-aunt who was all too eager to make my grandmother’s part of the family look bad. These two couldn’t stand each other yet they were okay with living in the same house because they were both too damn old to just fucking die and let the other win. And these were the words they’d said all these years, not mine.
I shifted in the dress my mother had waiting for me when I’d gotten out of the shower in my room. As requested, I was up in the attic rooms that were once used for the help and I couldn’t be happier. Fighting this battle with her over a dress wasn’t something I’d wanted to do, but I was irritated that she’d left out something that wasn’t made for my body type. And taken the dress I’d selected and hidden it. The tent-style baby doll dress was great for showing off my legs but made the rest of me look like a box. I swore she enjoyed watching my humiliation but I never gave her the satisfaction of watching me be uncomfortable. Not anymore.
The first course was a salad and I’d ignored the pointed way she wanted me to avoid putting any dressing on it. Since everyone else’s salads had come pre-dressed and mine was on the side, I was sure it was an edict from my mother.
“Everything is fine Auntie Camilla thank you for asking.” I gave her a bright smile before turning back to my plate before my mother decided I was full and ordered someone to take my plate from me.
“Fine? You’re still not married or dating anyone? I’d thought by now you’d at least have tried to do something that was expected of you.” Aunt Camilla looked like Cicely Tyson but held none of the warmth or personality. Every finger held a heavilyjeweled ring and the diamond necklace she wore weighed more than she did.
We hadn’t even been served the second course yet and she was already starting. Better than the time she asked me about this before I even got out of the car.
“I’m sure you’ve seen that the pickings are very slim for women nowadays.” A truthful answer but one I’m sure wouldn’t satisfy her.
The size of the dining room didn’t lend itself to casual conversation and it was in the same condition from when this home was a hotel. The wood-paneled walls gleamed from daily polishing and the gilding covered just about every surface. This room was straight out of the Gilded Age and although it was impressive, even the massive fireplaces on either end couldn’t bring any warmth into a space so many soulless people occupied.
“Please, I’ve put three husbands in the ground. The pickings aren’t that slim, you girls just have no desire to do what it takes to keep a man of means.” She waved a jeweled hand as she looked at the rest of my single female cousins with disgust.
“Well, since you’ve put three in the ground maybe that used up the chances for our bloodline.”
“Speak for yourself, I’m out hunting big fish, Auntie Camilla.”
“You’ll need to Denise. You don’t have one discernible skill that I’ve seen in your entire twenty-six years of life. At least not skills that can be discussed in polite company.”
My cousin Dalton almost choked on his wine trying to swallow the laugh and I momentarily felt bad for Denise. Being single and having a job in our family was a sin, but being single, not having a job and being an influencer was only a step above prostitution. In the eyes of my family, getting people to like you in order to gain their approval and then bargaining your likenesswas whoring yourself out. Which was wild given the business areas that built this family’s wealth.
“Dalton, you still raising other people’s children instead of making some of your own?” Aunt Camilla was really trying her luck tonight. I wasn’t sure if my grandmother was letting her say what she wanted because she shared these feelings. Or that she was just waiting to pick apart Camilla’s side of the family.
This is draining and we haven’t finished the salads yet.
“We’ve told you often, you can just come out of the closet. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Dalton, who was extra bored with this conversation took a sip of wine to keep his temper in check. “Just because I find joy in assisting families with their children does not make me gay. And even if I were, why in the world would I confide in anyone here?” He glanced around the table with his eyes avoiding his mother.
His dad had been a professional athlete playing overseas for most of Dalton’s childhood. He could speak multiple languages and started an exclusive au pair agency because of his personal experience. Dalton was fluent in six languages and I was sure his monthly revenue greatly exceeded his trust fund stipend. He had a summer home in Sag Harbor Hills and a massive loft in the city. He wasn’t staying here because he swore he would murder someone if he had to be around them the entire summer.
His father’s disappointment in him was that he didn’t fit the typical masculine role of playing soccer, wanting to watch sports and being a dickhead. His mother’s inability to stand up for him meant he had no soft feelings for her either. I probably didn’t have a cousin who wasn’t super fucked up in some way.
Good Lord, we’re a motley crew.
Dinner progressed the way it always did, with someone making a snide remark and someone else biting back. Plate after 18kt gold plate of succulent food went to waste because no one wanted to look too healthy by actually finishing a meal. Or theywere too nervous to eat. By the end, I was happy to push away to avoid dessert because I wasn’t going to tolerate the fighting anymore. I could feel a migraine coming on and I was happy my mother hadn’t joined me outside to give me a play-by-play of how I’d messed up.
I was on the back porch looking up at the sky and taking deep gulps of the breeze coming off the sea. Despite how irritated being in this place made me, I couldn’t deny how beautiful it was. Our family had deep roots in this area and it was something to be extremely proud of. They usually only highlighted the parts of our family tree that made us look unblemished and perfect in the eyes of white society and I was more proud of the men who’d helped build the railroads and worked the docks than I was of the ones who’d exploited their labor for gain.
