Chapter 9 - THE WEDDING EVELYN DID NOT RESCHEDULE FOR A YEAR
Julian asked Evelyn to dinner three months after the trial.
She said no.
He asked again two months later.
Coffee.
She agreed.
Slow.
Painfully slow.
Exactly right.
Julian entered therapy.
Gabriel mocked therapy once.
Clara stared at him.
He stopped mocking therapy.
Eventually Gabriel attended too.
Different therapist.
Nobody needed that level of family entertainment.
Julian returned to Falcone Logistics at a lower position.
Not vice president.
Not heir apparent.
Director of operations.
He reported to someone who wasn't related to him.
Gabriel thought it was healthy.
Julian called it character assassination.
He stayed anyway.
One evening, nearly a year after the canceled wedding, Evelyn visited Gabriel.
She carried no engagement ring.
“Julian asked me again.”
Gabriel looked up.
“And?”
“I haven't answered.”
“Why tell me?”
She smiled.
“Because apparently we're a strange family now.”
Fair.
She sat.
“I love him.”
Gabriel waited.
“He's different.”
“People say that too easily.”
“I know.”
She looked toward the garden where Julian was helping Clara move flowerpots.
“He doesn't hide uncomfortable things anymore.”
Gabriel smiled faintly.
“That's Clara's influence.”
“I heard that.”
Clara shouted from outside.
Evelyn laughed.
Then:
“If I marry him, I have one condition.”
Gabriel raised an eyebrow.
“You attend.”
His expression changed.
“Obviously.”
“No.”
She leaned forward.
“You attend exactly as you are.”
He looked toward his cane.
Evelyn followed his eyes.
“No curtain.”
“No side entrance.”
“No photographs cropped to hide it.”
Gabriel became quiet.
“And if you need the wheelchair by then?”
“Then you use it.”
“If I stumble?”
“Then you stumble.”
“If I fall?”
“We help you up.”
Simple.
Gabriel looked away because his eyes had suddenly become dangerous.
Evelyn pretended not to notice.
Good future daughter-in-law.
“Then tell my son yes.”
She smiled.
“No.”
Gabriel frowned.
“I'll tell him.”
“Unnecessarily independent.”
“I learned from Clara.”
May you like
From outside:
“I heard that too.”
