Chapter 6 - WHAT WILL YOU DO TO MY PARENTS?Sophia moved toward Margaret.
“You had no right to say that.”
“You told him your father died?”
“He was dead to us.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“You protected him for years.”
“I protected you from knowing he chose not to return.”
“You made me believe he would.”
“I was wrong.”
Sophia’s hands clenched.
“You were wrong about everything.”
I listened as years of pain surfaced between them.
Some of Sophia’s anger was real.
Margaret had worked long hours.
Sophia had spent afternoons with neighbors.
Promises were broken because rent came first.
Poverty had wounded both of them.
But pain did not excuse invention.
Sophia had rewritten her childhood to make herself the only victim.
She turned an absent father into a dead man.
A working mother into a neglectful one.
“What else have you lied about?” I asked.
Sophia looked at me.
“This is why I didn’t want her here. She ruins everything.”
“No,” my father said. “She is answering questions.”
Sophia turned toward him.
“Robert, please stay out of this.”
His expression hardened.
“I was about to welcome you as my daughter.”
“You still can.”
“No.”
My mother stepped beside him.
Sophia looked from them to me.
“You’re all judging me after one difficult moment.”
“It is not one moment,” I said.
“How do you know?”
“Because your mother was afraid to contradict you.”
Margaret lowered her head.
Sophia saw it and became angrier.
“Stop looking helpless!”
I moved between them again.
“Enough.”
Sophia stared at me.
I spoke quietly.
“If you can treat the mother who raised you this way in front of hundreds of people, what will happen when my parents become old?”
She said nothing.
“What happens if my mother wears something you consider embarrassing?”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“Linda understands these environments.”
I looked at my mother.
Her elegant blue gown had been tailored in Paris.
Diamonds rested at her throat.
Sophia respected her because she looked as though she belonged.
“What if she becomes ill?” I asked.
Sophia crossed her arms.
“What kind of question is that?”
“What if she needs help eating? What if my father loses money? What if neither of them can protect your image?”
“I would never mistreat them.”
“You just called your own mother an embarrassment because her dress was old.”
Margaret pressed her lips together.
Sophia tried to take my hand again.
“Michael, I love you.”
“I believe you love the life we represent.”
“That is cruel.”
“Perhaps.”
I looked toward the ballroom doors.
“But marrying you while doubting your character would be cruel to both of us.”
Sophia’s eyes filled with tears.
“Are you really throwing away our future?”
“No.”
May you like
I removed the wedding ring from my pocket.
“I am refusing to build it on a lie.”
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