You're right. I don't know what got into me. I'm sorry. It was right there. It would end the call.
It would make the discomfort stop. Two years of muscle memory, pulling her mouth into the shape of an apology she didn't owe. And through the door faintly, she heard Lily laugh at something. A bright, easy seven-year-old laugh. And Victoria looked at herself in the mirror over the sink, hair a mess, no makeup, wearing a maintenance man's old t-shirt in a two-bedroom in Queens.
And she did not recognize the woman, looking back, and for the first time in a long time. That was a good thing. No, she said, silence on the line. Uh, what? No, I'm not going to apologize.
Her voice was shaking, but she kept going the way you keep walking on a bridge you're terrified of because stopping is worse. You humiliated me in front of clients I spent 8 months courting. And when I was hurt by it, you left me alone. And now you're telling me it's my fault. And you're telling me I have no friends.
And you're telling me I'm exhausting. And Adrien, Adrien, I've been letting you tell me things like that for 2 years. And this morning I woke up and I realized I don't have to believe you anymore, Victoria. His voice went dangerous and low. You are drunk or you are hysterical or someone has gotten in your ear and I want you to stop and think very carefully about what you're doing right now because you say things like this and you can't unsay them.
I know, she said. We have a wedding. We have 400 people invited. We have vendors. We have I know your board loves me.
Your investors love me. You want to blow up the best thing that ever. Adrien, she said the engagement's off. She heard him breathe. She could picture his face perfectly.
The disbelief, the calculation, the switch already flipping from charm to threat because charm hadn't worked. "You're going to regret this," he said. "And every trace of honey was gone. " "Now you have no idea. You think you're strong, but you're the most fragile person I've ever met. And without me holding you together, you are going to fall apart, and everyone is going to see it.
And when you come crawling back, and you will, I might not be here. A pause. Who is he? Victoria's stomach dropped. What?