Just no.
She stared at me as though I had spoken in a language she had never heard before.
The château released the date later that afternoon.
Some deposits were lost.
Other funds returned to me over the following days.
The dress shop kept its cancellation fee.
Vendors followed the terms of their agreements.
There was no villainous collapse, no police, no theatrical punishment.
There were simply contracts, deadlines, and consequences.
The grand wedding Madison had designed did not happen.
Whether she and Jean-Luc chose to marry later was their decision.
I made that clear.
I had never tried to control whom she loved or whether she married him.
I only refused to keep financing the stage on which both of them had agreed I should remain invisible.
Madison did not speak to me for the rest of my first day in Paris.
The next morning, however, someone knocked on my hotel-room door.
It was her.
No Jean-Luc.
No perfect coat.
No makeup that I could see.
She looked exhausted.
For several seconds we stood without speaking.
Then she noticed my hands resting against the doorframe.
I wondered whether she saw the scars differently now.
“Were you really going to come?” she asked.
I pointed toward the chair where my charcoal suit was folded.
“I bought the ticket before you told me not to.”
Her eyes moved to the suit.
“I thought you’d be uncomfortable.”
“That wasn’t what you said.”
She looked down.
“I know.”
I waited.
For once, I did not make it easier for her.
Finally she said, “I wanted them to think I’d made it on my own.”
There it was.
Not French.
Not elegance.
Not my comfort.
She had wanted a version of herself with no visible scaffolding.
The irony would have amused Catherine.
I had spent my life building structures strong enough for other people to stand inside, and my daughter had become ashamed of the scaffolding that held up hers.
“You could have made it on your own,” I said.
“I would have been proud of you.”
She wiped at her face.
“I know.”
“But you didn’t.
I helped.
And then you decided the help was acceptable as long as nobody saw the person giving it.”
She nodded once.
I did not hug her immediately.
That mattered.
Love had been too automatic between us for too long.
Money had been automatic.
Rescue had been automatic.
Forgiveness had been automatic.
