“That you didn’t know.”
She stepped away from him.
“As if the problem is that you insulted the wrong person.”
Kevin shook his head.
“That’s not what I mean.”
“It’s exactly what you mean.”
Guests had begun looking away now, giving Jessica the little privacy possible in a room full of people who had already witnessed everything.
She folded her arms across herself.
“If Dad really were broke, would you be sorry?”
Kevin opened his mouth.
Then closed it.
Jessica waited.
So did I.
He could have saved something in that moment.
Not his position.
Not his reputation.
Something more important.
All he had to do was answer honestly and apologize without qualification.
Instead, his eyes moved toward David again.
“I think everyone’s emotional right now.”
Jessica gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“Of course you do.”
She turned away.
Kevin reached for her arm.
“Jess.”
She pulled back before he touched her.
“Don’t.”
One word.
That was the first crack in the marriage everyone could hear.
Kevin looked at me as if I had caused it.
“You could have told me,” he said.
I stared at him.
“About the company?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m family.”
The word was almost impressive in its timing.
Family.
The man who had just used me as a joke to impress his boss was suddenly invoking family as an entitlement to information.
I set my glass down.
“You became family today, Kevin.
You had months before today to show me what that meant to you.”
His expression hardened.
“So this was a test?”
“No.”
“It feels like one.”
“That’s because you failed at something no one was testing.”
Martha looked down, hiding the smallest smile.
Kevin heard a few murmurs from nearby tables and snapped his head toward them.
The humiliation he had intended for me had reversed direction, and he couldn’t tolerate it.
“This whole thing is ridiculous,” he said.
“Walter walks around pretending he’s some ordinary retired guy, and suddenly I’m the villain because I believed him?”
Jessica turned back.
“He never pretended.”
Kevin looked at her.
“He lives in that little house.”
