Chapter 32
MAGGIE
Before I’d even taken a single step toward my mother’s party, I’d been pulled into the drawing room and issued with strict instructions.
My father had stood behind the drinks cart with his posture so rigid that he’d looked like a drill sergeant and he’d issued his edicts like I’d be sentenced to manual labor if I didn’t comply.
“When you go in there, you will smile, Maggie. You will answer all questions according to the information you have been provided, and you will play along with the version of events as outlined in the joint statement we issued with the Hawthornes.”
“In other words, I had a severe allergic reaction to shellfish and almost died.” I’d nodded, accepting my punishment for the mess I’d made without arguing. “I can do that.”
“Make sure you do.” He’d given me a hard look and then sent me in here, to where our living and dining rooms had been turned into a cafe-type setup that spilled out to the entertainment area and the gardens.
Once again, my mother had outdone herself, fresh flowers arranged on every surface and white linen tablecloths and napkins on every small, round cafe table that’d been brought in.
Expensively dressed waitstaff circulated with trays of champagne and canapes while jugs of water containing several different types of fruit were displayed on the sideboard.
I was bombarded with women from the moment I stepped in, but it took me less than two minutes to notice a very specific face missing from the crowd.
Nora Thayer. I sighed. Clearly, she’d been good enough to be dragged into the wedding planning, but it must only have been because she’d been useful to my mother in that role.
The woman was many things and one of them was that she was still known as one of the few people who could pull the most breathtaking events seemingly out of thin air.
Obviously, she’d had Ryan’s help this time around, but no one could blame her for needing some support while she tried to find her sea legs again.
It pissed me off to absolutely no end that she’d been good enough when we’d needed help, but not for the party that’d been put together as the soft launch of my return to society. No one had said it in so many words, but that was what this was.
The room was filled to the brim with women whose outfits for this tea alone had probably cost enough to finance a small country for year.
Nora probably wouldn’t have been comfortable here anyway.
These women probably had yet another, even more expensive dress waiting at home for whatever they were doing after this, but Nora didn’t.
The way Ryan spoke about how his father’s scandal had affected her, she was probably already drawing a bath before retiring for the evening.
As I worked my way around the room, air-brushing kisses to cheeks and smiling like the princess I was supposed to be, I found myself wondering if he’d told his mother about us.
I also wondered what she thought about it if he had.
Would she accept us, or would she warn him against me after the way my family turned our backs on them?
A glass of champagne was pressed into my hand before the thought could go any further, a particularly gossip-hungry friend of my mother’s grinning like a shark as she handed it over. “Oh, Maggie, darling. It’s so wonderful to see you up and about again. How are you feeling?”
“It was a truly dreadful experience, but I’m so much better now. Thank you.” I forced a fake smile and mentally reached for her daughter’s name. “How are you, and how’s Agatha?”
She waved me off. “We’re wonderful. She wanted to be here, but of course, it’s not so easy for medical students to simply up and leave campus.”
“Of course.”
“In any event, we’re so relieved you’re alright. We were shocked when your mother told us. I didn’t even know you were allergic to shellfish.”
I had a sudden vision of my mother explaining my fake medical history to half the Upper East Side. “You know, I don’t think any of us realized it was so severe. I tend to stay far enough away from shellfish that there was just no knowing.”
“You gave us all such a fright,” another woman chimed in, stepping in beside me. “To think that you had to be taken to the hospital on your wedding day. It’s awful. Positively awful.”
I nodded my agreement, fielding a few more questions about my supposed recovery and extreme disappointment to have had to postpone the wedding. Those answers were easy. I knew what was expected of me and I said what I had to, but the other, more personal questions were starting to wear me down.
“When are you and Daniel thinking of rescheduling?”
“Soon,” my mother answered smoothly, appearing at just the right moment. “Very soon.”
“Are you feeling ready?”
I nearly froze, but my mother shifted her weight beside me, a subtle reminder to play my part, and I forced a smile. “Absolutely.”
Just not to marry Daniel.
Another of my mother’s friends joined us, immediately widening her eyes when she glanced down at my hand. “Darling, girl. Where’s your ring?”
Shit. My finger is still bare. I didn’t even think about that.
My mother suddenly laughed. “Daniel is such a thoughtful man. He’s having it replaced with a larger diamond. He wanted something more substantial after everything that’s happened. To make her feel better about missing the wedding.”
My stomach rolled. I really, really hope that isn’t true.
Increasing the carat weight would not make me feel better about our relationship. At all.
My mother squeezed my arm and I smiled wider, suddenly understanding why people fainted when they desperately needed to get out of a conversation. I was seriously considering it when the same woman who’d noticed that my ring was missing spoke up again.
“So, Maggie,” she started with a glint in her eyes that immediately made my hackles rise. “I heard you were spotted taking a little road trip with Ryan Thayer.”
My heart stopped for a second, my lungs completely forgetting that they were supposed to be doing something.
Strangely, my first thought wasn’t about explaining or wondering what they’d seen or heard.
It was about Ryan. I didn’t even think about the scandal it would cause, or what my family would think, or even about Daniel.
The only thing on my mind was that someone might’ve found out what’d happened between us—and blame him for my having run from the wedding.
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. I’m in trouble, aren’t I?
Before that fear could twist itself into a knot, my mother spoke up again, waving a hand like she hadn’t even thought to mention it before. “Ryan is helping with the wedding.”
“Ryan Thayer is helping to plan a wedding?”
I forced myself to breathe while my mother smiled the way she did when someone complimented our household staff. “Yes, he is. He’s been tremendously helpful, actually. We’re keeping things much more intimate this time, of course.”
“Is Nora involved as well?” someone asked in a tone that made it feel like the temperature around us had taken a sudden nosedive. “I sure hope not.”
My mother’s smile didn’t falter. “No, she’s not. Nora has quite enough going on, don’t you think?”
The almost imperceptible stiffness around her mouth made me realize that the Thayers were still banished from these circles and I blinked hard as what that meant sank in.
Earlier, I’d thought Nora simply hadn’t worked her way back up high enough to have been invited to this particular tea, but I’d also assumed these women were, in fact, starting to accept her again.
This last bit of conversation had proven me very, very wrong.
When my mom flitted from our group to make her way to the next, I excused myself and followed, catching her in a quiet corner near the walkway.
“Why are you pretending you’re not friends with Nora?”
My mother turned, brushing my hand off her arm before taking a small step closer and lowering her voice. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Can we please just be honest for a second?” I asked, respecting her unspoken wishes by keeping my own voice down too. “Nora is your friend. She was with you when you needed her at the wedding and she helped with the shower, so why are you acting like that’s not the case?”
“I’ve known Nora Thayer for decades, Maggie.” She held my gaze for another beat before she sighed. “My relationship with her is none of your concern.”
“Like hell, it isn’t.” I inhaled a deep breath when my heart started racing. “She was helping us, Mother. If not for her, Ryan wouldn’t be helping us now either.”
“Yes, and we’re very grateful.” A softer, almost pitying expression flickered across her features, gone almost before I’d even noticed it. “Instead of questioning me, just be happy you don’t ever need to be in Nora’s shoes. Daniel is from a family of wealth and prestige.”
“So is Court Thayer,” I reminded her, though that should hardly have been necessary. “Marrying a man from a family with a stellar reputation didn’t protect Nora. It might not protect me either.”
“That woman ended up with almost nothing,” she hissed. “Be grateful you won’t have to share her fate.”
As I stared back at her and realized she was completely serious, I almost burst out laughing. If that was what she thought I wanted, to just marry a man so I wouldn’t end up with nothing, my family was crazier than I’d thought.
I’d spent my whole life drowning in money, status, the Pembroke name, and all the perks that came with it, and I still always felt like I was starving.
Sure, I hadn’t had a plan before about how to survive without my family’s money, but more importantly, I hadn’t been prepared to be cut off from them.
The people. My mom and dad. My brothers.
“Do you even realize how much the Thayers have done for us?” I asked. “Do you have any idea how hard Ryan worked to bring me back into the fold? He’s done more for this family in the last month than—”
“Adelaide,” one of my mother’s friends cooed, appearing at her elbow like magic. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you. I want you to come and meet my future daughter-in-law. She’s lovely. Stunning. You’re going to love her.”
The woman barely even glanced at me as she pulled my mom away, leaving me alone to ponder the fact that Mom genuinely seemed to believe she was protecting me from Nora’s fate by supporting my marriage to Daniel. That hadn’t been a lie or an exaggeration.
In my mother’s eyes, they were doing me a huge favor by making sure I married somebody with the wealth and prestige required to ensure I died rich and with a respectable last name.
They simply didn’t really care about the life I still had to live in the meantime—or that the risk of ending up with nothing might just be mine to take.