The Rhythm of Our Feelings novel · Chapter 4 of 24
Chapter 4: The Board Dinner
Sutton did not come to rehearsal that day, or to the next one.
Philippa told us she had "a family obligation," and Lydia smirked.
I carried the cut shoe in my bag all afternoon, wrapped in a towel.
I meant to show it to Philippa, but first I wanted to know what it meant to Sutton.
That evening Wallace hosted the academy board in his dining room, twelve donors in black tie, and my mother wore a green dress she'd bought in a panic that afternoon.
She looked beautiful and terrified.
I stood beside her with a champagne glass I had no intention of drinking.
Philippa sat at the end of the table with her cane laid across her lap.
Lydia sat three seats down in white silk, and her mother, a hard-eyed woman in pearls, sat beside her.
Sutton arrived last.
She came in through the double doors in a dark blue dress, hair up, perfectly composed, and kissed her father on the cheek.
She did not look at me.
"We're so glad Wallace found happiness again," one of the board wives said, with the faint tone of a woman reading a eulogy.
"Thank you," my mother said warmly. "I'm lucky."
"Five months," Lydia said, sweetly, from across the table. "That's incredibly quick."
The room got quiet.
"It was," my mother said.
"I'm sure it was a very persuasive five months. Nurses must get such wonderful access to lonely men."
A fork clinked against a plate.
My mother's smile stayed in place.
I watched her hand tighten on her glass until her knuckles went pale.
"Lydia," I said.
Every head turned.
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