Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96513 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Finally, he did. My momentum pulled me backward, and I toppled over, landing hard in the sand.
“I was going to grant you your birthday wish,” he said with narrowed eyes. “But we both know that you haven’t earned it.”
Then he strode off toward our villa, leaving me still seated in the sand. Tears burned my eyes. I put my elbows on my knees and my hands on my forehead. With a deep shuddering breath, I tried to hold the tears at bay. I could hear chanting in the distance.
“Five, four, three, two, ONE! Happy New Year!”
Yeah.
Happy New Year.
Part III
Back to Normal
18
Katherine
I’d flown back to New York with Lark.
I hadn’t answered any of her questions. So, she stopped asking them. But I had seen the looks she was giving me. They were the same ones she’d given me in the past. She was worried. I supposed… she had every right to be.
I’d canceled my meeting with ChildrensOne when I got home. I didn’t have the headspace for anything else in my life. The director, Deborah, had been understanding but insisted I call her when I was ready to reschedule.
Mostly, I tried to go back to my normal life. Thankfully, I’d already scheduled my social media accounts with content ahead of time. So, I didn’t have to really pay attention to them. Though I couldn’t ignore the volley of comments asking where I was and why I wasn’t responding as often. Social media was a blessing and a curse.
I’d gone back to personal training with Rodrigo. He’d bumped me from four times a week to five and recommended his nutritionist. In two weeks, I was back down to pre–Puerto Rico weight, and I could see the tone in my muscles again. I was healthier than ever… physically.
My mental state was another thing.
It must have been bad because even my mother noticed.
Never a good thing. She rarely saw anything that wasn’t right in front of her face.
That was how I’d ended up here, in a carefully selected black dress and my favorite fur-lined jacket. My mother preferred Manolo Blahnik. So, even my shoes had been picked with her in mind. Conservative yet stylish. The crux of Celeste Van Pelt.
I stepped into the private tea room, used only for select company on the Upper East Side. It was my mother’s favorite establishment. She came here at least twice a week with her friends for high tea and even higher gossip. I found her seated at her usual table with tea already in front of her along with a glass of champagne. Celeste Van Pelt never thought it was too early to start drinking. She was scrolling an iPad, likely reading the gossip column.
“Hello, Mother,” I said, pulling my chair out and having a seat.
“Hello, Katherine.” She looked up from her iPad and perused my outfit. “Is that new?” She gestured to my dress.
“Yes. Cunningham Couture. It’s part of Elizabeth’s new line. It won’t even reveal until Fashion Week next month.”
“Sensible for her,” she said. “Isn’t she usually a bit more… daring?”
I shrugged. “Depends on the line. I think Harmony is taking over the more daring side of the industry.”
“Ah, her daughter is designing with her?”
“Yes,” I told her. Though I was sure she’d already known that.
“Interesting.” But she said it in a way that made it seem not at all interesting.
A waitress appeared then, depositing a tray of finger sandwiches and little pastry delicacies. She poured our tea and asked if we needed anything else. My mother waved her away. She must have been accustomed to my mother because she left without another word.
Finally, my mother put her iPad down. “Have you heard from your brother?”
“Not really,” I told her, adding a bit of milk to my tea before taking a sip. “How is Sutton doing with the pregnancy?”
My brother, David, lived in middle-of-nowhere Lubbock, Texas, where he was the CFO for Wright Construction, one of the largest construction companies in America. He’d moved to San Francisco after college to escape New York. And then Lubbock to escape San Francisco. He’d promptly fallen in love with a Wright and decided to stay permanently. Sutton was pregnant now, due sometime next month. David had never really been loquacious before he left. He didn’t talk to me much now that he was thousands of miles away.
“Going wonderful. It’s her second, so she seems confident.”
“Do they know if it’s a boy or a girl?” I asked distractedly.
“A girl. They haven’t told me her name yet.”
“Smart.”
My mother arched an eyebrow. “And why is that?”
“Because if you don’t like it, you can’t say anything about it if it’s already the kid’s name.”
She relented and reached for a small cucumber sandwich. “Anyway, I thought that you and I could go down there when the baby is born.”
I nodded. Though I didn’t particularly want to fly to Texas right now. But I wanted to see David. I wanted to meet my niece. It would be a welcome distraction from my life on the Upper East Side.