Chapter 2 - The Mask SlippedMy father, Richard, finally set his steak knife down. He adjusted his silk tie, clearing his throat with a loud, authoritative rasp that he usually reserved for his middle-management board meetings.
"Now, let's all calm down," Richard began, placing a heavy hand on my arm. "Mia, sweetheart, it's your wedding day. We shouldn't be talking about trusts, legalities, or dealerships. Your mother was only thinking about your sister's situation. Chloe needs a reliable vehicle to get to her new job. You and Daniel live downtown; you don't even need a large SUV."
I looked down at my father’s hand on my sleeve—the hand that had never once patted my back when I brought home straight A's, the hand that had always reached into his wallet for Chloe while telling me to 'be understanding.'
I pulled my arm back, disengaging from his touch entirely.
"Chloe doesn't have a new job, Dad," I revealed cleanly. "She was terminated from her boutique firm three weeks ago for expense account fraud."
Chloe gasped, jumping out of her chair so fast her champagne glass overturned, soaking the white linen table runner in bubbling yellow wine. "How do you know that?! Have you been spying on me?!"
"I didn't need to spy on you, Chloe," Daniel interjected, pulling out his phone and tapping the screen twice. "Your former employer is a subsidiary client of my father’s firm. The settlement agreement your mother signed to keep you out of small claims court explicitly noted your termination."
The table went so quiet that the soft scraping of silver forks against porcelain from the adjacent tables sounded unnaturally loud.
My mother's eyes flashed with a dark, unbridled rage. The regal, benevolent matriarch persona she had maintained for thirty years shattered completely.
"You arrogant little bastard," Eleanor hissed, leaning across the table toward Daniel, her knuckles white against the wood. "How dare you bring up family business at a reception we helped pay for?!"
"You contributed three thousand dollars toward the floral centerpieces, Eleanor," Daniel's mother, Victoria Sterling, spoke up softly from the end of the table, her pearl necklace catching the light. "The remaining ninety-seven thousand dollars of this wedding was covered by Daniel and Mia. Including the dress she is currently wearing."
Chloe stared at my dress—a custom lace gown crafted by a boutique designer in New York that she had tried to convince me was 'too mature' for my frame when we first went fitting.
"You lied to me, Mom!" Chloe shrieked, turning her fury onto Eleanor. "You told me you paid for half the reception! You promised me I was getting that SUV tonight!"
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"Shut up, Chloe!" Eleanor snapped, turning her head back toward me, her eyes burning with pure venom. "Look at what you've done, Mia. You brought these people into our lives to humiliate your own flesh and blood. You sat there and let them insult your sister and your father!"
"Mia didn't humiliate you, Eleanor," Daniel said, taking my hand in his, his fingers warm, strong, and unyielding. "You humiliated yourselves the moment you decided to treat your daughter's wedding like an asset liquidation sale."
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