Then:
Dr. Cross seems impressive. I don’t understand why you kept him from us.
Then:
People are asking questions. Call me immediately.
Not once did she mention what she had said.
Not once did she say she was sorry.
At 7:20, Mrs. Higgins sent a Facebook friend request.
I laughed so suddenly Grace startled against me.
By noon, gossip had outrun oxygen.
Beatrice called from the gallery.
“My darling,” she said, “I just received a call from a woman named Sylvia Sterling asking whether you truly own Cross Gallery or whether that was ‘family exaggeration.’ I told her you own it, run it, saved it from my retirement, and once rejected a private collector so thoroughly he sent apology flowers. I may have embellished slightly.”
“You did not.”
“No. But I enjoyed the tone.”
“Thank you, Bea.”
“She also asked about your husband. I said Dr. Cross is a serious man and that anyone bothering his wife usually develops a sudden interest in privacy.”
“That sounds like you.”
“I am a patron of the arts, dear. Drama is part of the job.”
By evening, my father called again.
This time, I answered.
“Elara.”
He sounded older than he had the day before.
“Dad.”
A pause.
“I don’t know where to begin.”
“Begin with the truth.”
He inhaled slowly.
“I’m sorry I didn’t stop her.”
My eyes closed.
Not enough.
But not nothing.
“You never do.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
Silence.
Then, softer, “I think I’m beginning to.”
I shifted the phone to my other ear and looked across the kitchen at Leo and Sam building a block tower while Maya supervised with authoritarian delight.
“Why did you call?”
“Because I saw my grandchildren for the first time yesterday.”
“My children.”
“Yes,” he said quickly. “Your children. I know.”
“Do you?”
“Elara, please.”
The old plea.
Please don’t make this hard.
Please don’t ask me to stand.
Please let sadness count as accountability.
I had been trained to soften when my father sounded wounded. He had always seemed gentler than my mother, and for years I mistook gentleness without action for goodness. But a soft voice can still enable harm.
