Paige #3
“Are you through with your hissy fit, young lady? It was very rude of you to leave like that.”
I feel my shoulders hiking up at Mama’s words, and Hayes senses the tension in me. He smooths his hand down my spine and leaves a warm, reassuring warmth on my hip where it comes to rest.
“I’m feeling very overwhelmed by your preemptive planning, Mama. It’s okay to need to take a break from someone who likes to make all the plans for you, and in this case, I needed a moment to compose myself and figure out what I want in this situation.”
“Oh, Paige, you can’t mean that. I just want what’s best for you, and I’m taking on the brunt of this planning to help you.”
“Ah, but that’s just it, Caroline. You’re not helping Paige, you’re planning out every aspect of what should be her day.
Instead of listening to your daughter, you’re taking away her agency and forcing what you want on her, as usual.
Why not ask Paige what she wants for once and find a way to incorporate that into what you’re insisting on despite her never wanting this in the first place?
The least you can do is compromise since she’s allowed you this concession of putting on a big wedding in the first place.
” Hayes is all patience and calm, whereas I am, once again, a rattled and intimidated daughter working through my mother’s latest gaslighting attempts.
“You have no idea the lengths I have gone to for my daughter,” Mama says, clutching the strand of pearls at her neck. “I am ensuring the future she deserves, despite having picked you to marry.”
“Like the lengths you went to so you could hand her over on a platter to the rapist son of complicit business associates to gain access to their technology? She could definitely have picked worse, and you know it. How’s the integration going down at Thackery Agriculture now that you have all of Daniels Industries at your disposal, anyway? ”
Mama turns a shade of red that borders on purple, and it takes her a moment to calm herself enough to speak. “We will not talk about that unfortunate matter. It is behind us.”
Daddy chuckles darkly over the rim of his coffee cup, forever the quiet observer of Mama’s constant action, though he’s been cooler toward her this morning.
“He got you there, Caroline. That Daniels boy was a creep, and you knew it all along.
We could spend hours just unpacking that little gem of information you kept from me for so many years, but I fear now is simply not the time.
Later, my darling wife,“ he says in a harsh tone that is devoid of the genial warmth he usually carries when dealing with Mama.
My eyes widen at the unusual interaction between them.
Judging by his comment and tone, he is very unhappy with her choice to keep certain things from him, and he’s not hiding it anymore.
At least not in front of us. He was civil and in host mode at the Christmas Eve Dinner, and nothing in their interactions made me think they were disagreeing at all.
It makes me wonder what is happening out of the public eye, and if their marriage can withstand it.
Knowing all that they have weathered together over the years, and still managed to keep a united front, I am mostly confident that they will get past this also, though it may irrevocably change their relationship.
Mama’s cheeks remain rosy and her lips are flattened into a harsh line that tells me more than she will herself. This is an ongoing argument, then, and they are at a stalemate on how to proceed past it.
Daddy sets his cup down and turns to Hayes.
“We’re renaming the company, as you suggested, and working on the integration plan now.
We will likely be rolling out the processes starting in another week or two.
It was a splendid gift and has given me something to do now that my job at the Xenios Group will become arbitrary in the new year. ”
“I want to have our ceremony in the Elysium Garden, with a small group of family and friends, only. You can plan the reception and make it whatever you’d like,” I blurt into the lull of conversation, looking to take the topic away from Garrison Daniels and what I narrowly escaped by taking my fate into my own hands.
“There’s not enough room in the garden, Paige!
We have three hundred people on the guestlist without Hayes’s side to consider, and at least half will expect to be at the ceremony,” Mama cries, almost rising from her seat at the injustice of having her carefully crafted plans upended by my simple request.
“My wife has spoken. If you want to have this lovely wedding at all, the ceremony will be at the Abyss, and Paige and I will be in charge of the guestlist and plan for what she wants to see happen. If you want four hundred people at the most absurd reception you can muster, by all means, make it happen.” Hayes’s tone is firm, leaving no room for discussion otherwise.
“Who wants more biscuits?” I ask to the stunned silence that descends on the table.