We laugh and talk the rest of the way, and almost forget what we’re doing, until we pull up at my father’s rental house in Palm Springs. Margot’s car is already there, and the lights are on. Showtime.
“Déjà vu,” Damon says, and squeezes my hand. “Here we go.”
“I know you’re nervous, how could you not be. But I’m feeling on fire and in my full power for the first time in my life. I choose you, and no matter what happens in there, Father is going to have to accept it. If they don’t want to be part of what we’re doing going forward, well, we gave them their chance.” I honestly don’t expect for Margot to give us any trouble. She’ll make Damon grovel in a sisterly way for the next decade or so, but ultimately she wants me to be happy. Emily will just be happy to have her shares in the company back. She’ll probably still have to find other meaningful work, or a husband, whichever falls into her spider web first. And I really don’t care what Father thinks or says at this point. He’s either with us, or with himself. We’ll see.
“I just wish you had told them I was coming with you.”
“Now Damon, didn’t you say that it was best to handle Father with the element of surprise? After all, you just did this a few days ago. Now you have me in your corner. Piece of cake.”
We hold hands and literally present a united front as I ring the doorbell. When Father opens the door, I can see the familiar bristle move through him at the sight of Damon.
“What the hell…” Then something rare takes over, a tone of fatherly protection. “What are you doing here, Chamberlain? You’re finished with us as of today. If this is some kind of sick prank to further hurt us, to hurt Amanda—”
“It’s nothing like that Father,” I interrupt. “I’m here voluntarily. Damon and I are together now. Again.”
At that moment, Margot comes to stand behind Father.
“Oh, God. Family meeting indeed.”
“Hey, sis. That’s right. And Damon is family, now. Well, he will be soon enough. Can we come in?”
Father holds the door open for us, and we follow Margot down the hall. But instead of going to the living room, Father directs us to the kitchen, where the island is laden with a newly resurrected feast.
“I started learning to cook this past couple of weeks in my impending retirement.” Damon raises an eyebrow, and I’m skeptical too. Grayson Sutter doesn’t cook. “I know what you’re thinking. But it was actually Damon who told me to find something productive to do. I’m not ready to work as a chef, but it’s actually been kind of fun. I roasted a chicken and made garlic mashed potatoes for our dinner earlier, there’s pasta with spring vegetables from yesterday, and I set out some cold cuts and stuff for sandwiches. Sutter deli is now open.”
“Wow, father, everything looks really good,” says Margot.
“Just fix a plate, and we can take turns heating them in the microwave.”
I see Father and Margot exchange a worried glance when they see how happy and energetic I am at two a.m. Damon is still extremely nervous, and smiles at Father like he’s come to take me to the prom or something. Except he’s under no obligation to bring me home by a certain hour, or ever.
“This ought to be good,” she whispers, as I fix my plate. She puts an arm around me to draw even closer. “It better be since I dragged myself to Palm Springs in the middle of the night.”
I’m glad Stirling and the girls stayed home. They’re family too, obviously, but it’s better for us to work this out ourselves for now.
We’re all talking softly and taking turns at the microwave when Emily finally comes in.
“Oh my God!” she says.
“I already said that,” Margot says. “Chill, Em. It’s okay. Fix a plate, and Amanda and Damon are going to explain what’s going on.”
Instead of lining up at the island, we opt for the dining room table where we can all see each other. Damon and I sit across from Margot and Em, with Father at the head of the table. I decide to break the ice, to hopefully set the tone.
“I know this is so crazy. Thank you for doing this. I—we—certainly aren’t going to be able to cover everything here tonight. Much has happened between Damon and I, which you all know pieces of, and some of which will remain between us. The important thing to know is that, believe it or not, we’ve worked through it all, including the takeover.”
The others make noises of angst and trepidation. I squeeze Damon’s hand, signaling for him to share his own thoughts.
“Speaking of that,” he begins, and I’m glad to have the chance to take a bite or two of my food, “—and like Mandy said, we can’t get into everything tonight—but first and foremost, I want to express how sorry I am. So deeply sorry. It all has to do with a huge misunderstanding, and my poor reaction to it. I never meant to hurt you—well, okay, I did. But it was wrong. And once I got the truth about what happened back in Kauai, I laid myself bare to Amanda, and let her make the choice whether or not to take me back.”
He continues to explain how he wants to turn around his takeover of Sutter, bring the family back into it, and create something entirely new—Gray Chamber Fine Art and Jewelry. Within minutes, everyone starts talking excitedly at once, with questions, ideas, and praise. I pause and look around the table. The “what if Damon and I had stayed together” vision I had in Kauai is coming true here in Los Angeles. Except now Father and Em are part of it too. It’s pretty amazing.
“What?” says Margot when she catches me staring.
“Are you okay, sweetheart?” asks Damon, as he squeezes my hand.
“I’m fine,” I say and smile at each of them. “I’m just happy.”
“Maybe it’s a good time for me to say something,” says Father. There’s a brief moment of tension, and I think the rest of us fear a relapse into recent tirades. “Just like Amanda and Damon, I can’t possibly make up for the last however many decades of you girls’ lives in one night. And old habits are hard to break. But if I can roast a chicken, I can learn to be part of this new chapter. And I too want to apologize to each of you, starting with my daughters. Talk about history. It goes back to when I lost your mother, and how I was raised. Truthfully, I always worried about failing you, and I hid behind money. There’s also a huge part of this that none of you girls are privy to. Damon is, though, and that’s another story for another night. But we’ll get it sorted out, I promise. But as we’ve all come to see, it all works out.”
