Page 13 of Matrimonial Merger
She got down, now completely sobbing. The entire room was about to cry. I could feel it.
Davey shouted, “This is about Dad. It’s about his spirit and wanting to take care of everyone. As lovely as this news is, can we please stop fighting and focus on why we are here and the good we are doing?”
“We’re here to take care of our neighbors,” I agreed. “So, let us focus on that. And then those of you who can drink and need a drink later will get their chance. Right now, though, we still have work to do. Let’s do that much for David’s memory, alright?”
“Okay, everyone,” Dahlia said. “We have two more hours here to pull this together. Can we please get back to work—everyone but Cal and Daphne. They get a pass.”
I shot her a smile and went to find Daphne.
5.KNOCKED UP
Cal
“Mom,can I pull you out for a minute to chat?” I asked.
Mom’s face dropped. She turned from where she was speaking with Tim and said, “There is nothing to say. I regret?—”
“There are things to say—thingsIneed to say. Follow me,” I said.
She relented, following me through the back entrance to the kitchen, then down to the ground floor and out a back door that connected the store to the company’s tower. With Daphne’s keycard, I had access to everything. We took the executive elevator up, nostalgia hitting immediately. Mom said nothing. She was on-edge—aware she’d fucked up, but also not sure how to fix it.
I walked down the hallway past the assistants in the center of the c-suite area. I nodded and said, “Just using Daphne’s office.”
They nodded back, not batting an eyelash.
We ducked into Daphne’s office. Mom popped down on the sofa in the corner, seething, while I tried to find the words to tell her how hurt I was.
“Does it have you all nostalgic?” Mom asked. “Or did you just bring me to humiliate me?”
I chose my words carefully, looking out the plate glass wall, across to David’s old office. I expected to see the company’s late patriarch popping in. Now, it was changed, full of Davey’s sports memorabilia these days. The view remained the same, but much had changed. I thought about my old office up the hall. I thought about everything I’d learned and felt here. It was overwhelming—like a ghost town left behind.
I leaned on Daphne’s desk, “I brought you here because it’s the busiest shopping day of the year, Mom, and I wasn’t about to lay into you in front of a crowd. Nor can I let you and Daphne share oxygen right now without worrying about what will happen to her.”
“I am not going to hurt her, Calvin. It was Danna?—”
“Let’s leave Danna out of this,” I said. “She’s a grieving widow. This entire family is grieving—and that includes me, Mom. Have a heart.”
She looked down at her hands, folded in her lap. “In retrospect, I should have let up on the girl.”
I rubbed my temples. “Mom, she’s not a girl. She’s a woman. And I wish you would treat her like she is an equal. She’s a business woman, just like you. Why can you not just let it go? What is your beef with Daphne?”
“She’s nothing like me! Or you! All of these people are robber barons. This entire place was justhandedto them. They’ve always had it easy. Always! They aren’t like you, Cal. And you? You deserve someone who understands that. Daphne is lucky she was born into wealth and always had an easy time of it.”
I approached, sitting on the couch across from her. “Mom, she was born into privilege but you don’t get to choose your parents. Why would you take it out on Daphne?”
“Because it is people like Daphne—and Danna before her—that have always spat and me and all I did.”
“Mom, Delphine’s has given you akillerbrand deal. Your stuff ended up on the faces of the richest women in this town in Q4. Daphne did that. Chloe and Daphne together, in fact. Would you like me to bring you to Chloe’s office and show you what the Chief Influencer’s office looks like?” I asked. “Because Daphne did that. And if you’re into eating the rich, just remember that Chloe has never wanted for anything inherlife. Is she less capable? I’d hate anyone to describe her that way—to infantilize her or suggest she was less-than—and I’m pretty sure you agree.”
Mom shook her head, gaze dropping. “Calvin, you do not understand anything about these people.”
“I have lived my entire life trying, so I think I knowa bit.”
“Do you? Because you deserve this—all you’ve worked for—and you have the satisfaction of it.”
I cocked my head. “What do you mean?”
Mom stood, walking to the bookcase behind Daphne’s desk.
