Page 30 of Best Kept Vows

Duty?

Obligation?

All of the above?

We sat in the grand dining room beneath the crystal chandelier, food artfully arranged on expensive plates, and conversation carefully shallow.

Dolly and Coco exchanged meaningless gossip whileBryce lounged smugly across from me, continually dropping hints of his supposed expertise. I knew he was trying to undermine me, positioning himself to take control of Boone Metals should I fail. It was pathetic, really, because if I failed, the company would as well, and there would be nothing to take over or control.

“Craig is renting a yacht for the summer,” Birdie, my niece, announced. “We’re going sailing in the Mediterranean.”

Craig Kensey was my niece Birdie’s useless fiancé, whose biggest accomplishment to date was spending his family’s fortune on ridiculous ventures that inevitably failed. Birdie, like her mother, was all aboutshowinghow great her life was instead of living it well. Her vapid mannerisms were in painful and stark contrast to Ada’s spirited determination. My daughter wanted to save the world. Birdie wanted to escape it and live in a bubble.

“Lia isn’t with you,” Mama unnecessarily pointed out. “I thought we were clear that this dinner is mandatory.”

Because this family is a fucking job with employee guidelines.

My father sighed, and I turned to him. “Dad, all okay?”

My mother rolled her eyes. They had always been an unhappy couple—never in tune with one another. She used to respect him mostly out of fear, but now he was weak, and the power balance had shifted.

“She…has a…job,” my father said, stumbling over his words.

“Yes, we heard, Dad,” Coco chimed, glaring at me. “How could you let her work forthatwoman?”

I clenched my jaw. “It’s an internship.”

“First, she went back to school and now this.” Mama let her disgust show.

“Good…for…her,” Dad said, his voice louder than I’d heard for a long time.

“Honey, just eat your soup,” Mama dismissed him.

I saw Hendrix—who sat at the table for these dinners upon my father’s insistence—stiffen. He probably hated these dinners as much as Lia did.

As my father did, now.

A part of me thought how the mighty had fallen. During his time of need, my mother, my sister, and even I didn’t support him—it was my wife, the one he’d said wasn’t right for the family, who held his hand.

“Do you know that Lia has lunch with Dad several days a week?” I asked the table in general.

Mama sent me a flat, unimpressed stare. “Your wife should be working for the foundation. Instead, she’s wasting her time?—”

“She’snotwasting her time,” I cut her off.

Mama looked at me in surprise. I usually didn’t defend Lia when she was here, so it was odd that I was doing it when she wasn’t. But our heated conversation earlier and my epiphany of putting peace with Mama before Lia’s happiness had jarred me out of complacency.

“Oh, please,” Coco scoffed.

“I mean, what is she going to do atSavannah Lace?” Birdie chimed in because she was the kind who wouldn’t let go of an opportunity to slander someone. That was her special skill set.

“She’s going to learn the business,” I quipped.

“She has no experience…why would they even hire her?” Birdie picked up her glass of wine.

I glanced at Birdie—so much like Coco, all surface and no depth—and felt a sharp pang of realization. Lia had given me far more than a polished image or a well-connected name. She had raised Ada and Tristan to be kind, intelligent, and strong.

“I think it’s demeaning to take some entry-level job at her age,” Birdie, who didn’t know how to shut the fuck up, continued with a slight slur in her voice.