Chapter 6: The Things Daniel Said When He Thought He Was Winning
Ryan stood between his sister and Daniel, and he did not raise his voice.
"Don't speak to her like that."
Daniel leaned back in his chair.
The calculating look had settled into something almost relaxed, and that was worse somehow than the panic had been.
"Ryan, I understand you're upset.
But let's be honest about what's happening here.
Your fiancée staged a confrontation at my wedding.
She hired someone to photograph my wife.
She arranged for documents to be delivered by courier to cause maximum public embarrassment." He spread his hands.
"I'm not the only one with questions to answer today."
"The documents are real," Patricia said from across the room.
"Documents can be fabricated.
Documents can be taken out of context.
Documents can reflect transactions that were entirely legitimate and have been deliberately misrepresented." He looked at Patricia steadily.
"I have my own attorney, and I promise you, he is considerably less sentimental than Gerald."
Patricia didn't flinch.
"I'm sure he is."
"So before anyone does anything they regret," Daniel continued, "I'd suggest we all take a breath.
The money Patricia is referring to was moved as part of a restructuring I was authorized to perform.
I have documentation of that authorization.
What I don't have is the patience to be publicly accused of theft at my own wedding by a woman with a personal vendetta."
He looked at me.
"And Alice — I genuinely am sorry about the dress.
That was wrong.
Melissa should not have taken it.
But I think we both know that what's happening here today is about more than a dress."
"What is it about, then?" I asked.
"It's about the fact that you've never felt fully accepted by this family.
And instead of talking to Ryan about that, you waited for an opportunity to make a point.
Publicly.
On the worst possible day." He tilted his head slightly.
"I understand.
I do.
But I think if you're honest with yourself, you'll see that this says something about you too."
I looked at him for a moment.
"That's very well said," I told him.
He blinked.
"It's well-constructed," I continued.
"You took something true — that I've felt like an outsider in this family — and you used it to make me sound unstable.
You made the dress sound like a pretext.
You made Patricia sound like a hired enemy.
You made the documents sound like a misunderstanding." I paused.
"The problem is that I've been watching you do this to Melissa for the past two years, and I've seen exactly how it works.
You find the one true thing and you build the lie around it."
Melissa was very still.
"You told her the florist cancellation was my fault," I said.
"I heard you.
You said I'd called and complained about her order and the florist had dropped her out of professional courtesy to me.
That wasn't true.
But she believed it for three months."
Daniel said nothing.
"You told Ryan's parents that I'd refused to include them in our engagement dinner planning.
I hadn't.
You'd told me the dinner was immediate family only and then told them I'd excluded them."
Ryan turned to look at Daniel.
"You told me," Ryan said slowly, "that Alice didn't want my parents at the engagement dinner."
"There was a miscommunication—"
"You told me she'd specifically said she found them overwhelming."
"Ryan, that conversation was—"
"I never said that," I said.
"I have never once found your parents overwhelming.
I love your parents."
The room had changed.
I could feel it.
The guests who had been watching a confrontation were now watching something else — a pattern being named out loud for the first time.
Melissa stood up.
"The florist," she said.
"You told me Alice complained about my order."
Daniel looked at her.
"Melissa—"
"Did you tell me that or didn't you?"
"It was a simplification of a more complicated—"
"Did you tell me Alice complained about my order and got me dropped?"
A long pause.
"Yes," he said.
"But the context—"
"I was furious at her for four months." Melissa's voice was shaking.
"I told everyone she was trying to sabotage my wedding.
I told Mom.
I told our aunts." She stopped.
"And it wasn't true."
"Melissa, you need to calm down."
"Don't tell me to calm down."
"You're embarrassing yourself."
She took one step toward him.
"I want to see the authorization," she said.
"The one you said you have.
For moving the money.
Show me right now."
"This is not the time—"
"Show me the authorization, Daniel."
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then he looked at the door.
Then he looked at Patricia.
Then he reached into his jacket and took out his phone.
And instead of showing Melissa anything, he pressed dial.
Ryan reached over and took the phone out of his hand.
Daniel stared at him.
"You'll get it back," Ryan said, "when Gerald gets here."
And Daniel, for the second time that afternoon, sat down and had nothing left to say.
But I noticed his eyes.
They had moved to the envelope Patricia had given Ryan.
May you like
They stayed there.
And I understood that whatever was in those documents, Daniel believed there was still a way out of this — and he was still looking for it.
