Chapter 6 - Walking Out
I didn't wait for the police to arrive, though someone from the country club staff was already on the phone in the lobby describing an active financial crime.
I turned my back on the stage, holding Mason’s hand firmly, and walked down the center aisle.
The guests parted for us like the Red Sea. The very people who had chuckled when Brittany called me a clearance item now lowered their eyes in shame as we passed. A few women offered sympathetic, guilty half-smiles. I didn't acknowledge any of them. I held my head higher than I had in my entire life.
As we pushed through the heavy mahogany doors of the ballroom and entered the cool evening air of the club’s grand foyer, hurried footsteps clattered behind us.
"Sarah! Sarah, stop!"
It was Evelyn. She had run out without her shoes, her stockings snagged on the marble tile, clutching her sequined evening bag like a weapon.
"You give me that paper right now!" she hissed, catching up to us near the glass exit doors. "Do you have any idea what you've done? Jake’s company has investors! If Arthur Vance pulls out and calls the district attorney, Jake will be ruined! He’ll lose his house! He’ll go to prison!"
I stopped and slowly turned around to face the woman who had birthed me.
"And where were you when Mason had pneumonia two winters ago?" I asked, my voice deadly soft. "When the heat in our apartment got shut off because I couldn't pay the utility bill? I called you, Evelyn. I begged you for fifty dollars to buy his prescription. What did you tell me?"
Evelyn blinked, momentarily stunned by the question. "That... that was different. You needed to learn financial responsibility—"
"You told me that having a child out of wedlock was a debt I had to pay myself," I said, stepping closer until she was forced to look directly into my eyes. "While you had three hundred and fifty thousand dollars sitting in Jake’s accounts. Money Dad left for this little boy."
"Your father was senile!" she snarled.
"My father was terrified of you," I countered. "He spent his whole life letting you run over him, just like you ran over me. But he made sure Mason was protected. And now, the law is going to handle you and Jake."
"You wouldn't dare press charges against your own brother," she spat, though her voice lacked its earlier venom, replaced by the tremor of real terror. "Blood is thicker than water, Sarah. You destroy him, you destroy this family!"
I looked down at Mason, then back at Evelyn.
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"This boy is my family," I said. "You and Jake are just people who share my last name. Don't ever call my phone again. If you come near my apartment, I’ll have a restraining order served before you can make it back to your car."
We walked out into the crisp autumn night, the heavy glass doors swinging shut behind us, cutting off Evelyn’s muffled cries.
