Page 193 of Swallow Your Sorries

Suddenly it all clicks.Hale?

I gaze over at Stassi, but she’s transfixed, and half-hiding behind the lounge’s wall.

“It’s not the same thing. Right now I run alongside the old money circles, but I’m not in the circle,” he says, drawing a circle on the sticky-looking bartop.

“And you’re new money, right?”

“Right.”

“And new money can never really get in the circle, right?”

“You can get close enough to breakintoan old money family, but it takes years and careful planning. The first step is to own a successful business, but not just any business, businesses deemed worthy. Ones they can associate with. Publicly.”

Rie Rie looks around, her thick lenses flashing. “And you think this dump would fit?”

“I know it won’t. It’s just a stepping stone. A fast cash grab before I sell it to get the capital for something worthy. Still, if I do it just like Perriots, it’ll take me ten steps back. Perriots is just too trashy.”

“And that offends your mother because it’s hertrashybusiness that even got you into Beaulieu in the first place?”

Hale deflates. “I don’t think my mom herself is trashy. She just… can’t separate herself from the business. SheisPerriots and I…I don’t want to be.”

“Let me ask you a question,” Rie Rie says, putting down the glass. “Why do you want to penetrate the circle?”

“If I ran in better circles… I could have a better shot.”

“At what?”

“The only way to truly integrate is with a fuck ton of respectable money, but also a fuck ton of time.”

“Hence theoldpart.” Rie Rie nods.

“Right. But there’s a faster way. Tying your bloodline in. And you can only tie it in if you can get halfway into the circle first.”

“With the money and respect.”

“Bingo.”

“But…. you want to marry into the circle? You’re only bloody eighteen.”

“The perfect age to startthinkingabout future connections. It’s different for blue bloods. They already have engagements planned by twenty, executed by twenty-three, and the deals are often sealed before twenty-seven. Especially for the women. Don’t look at me like that. You were married at eighteen.”

“Twice.”

“Exactly.”

“But I thought I was in love.”

“All nine times?” Hale snorts.

“Two of them were to the same man, so only eight count really,” she says. “And then two died, so I have two less ex-husbands. So really it’s just…five. I think.”

“I don’t think it works like that, Rie.”

“But why? Why do you want to marry into their circle? Just so you can rub shoulders? Who cares about the class part so long as you’ve got the money, and you’ve got the money?”

“I don’t care about the class at all. I do care about wealth and I care about wealth for my future generations, but that isn’t why. It’s just becausetheycare about the social status stuff. I…I just have to become worthy, classier, so it’s a possibility.”

“I don’t get it,” Rie Rie shakes her head. “All this talk about circles, and I feel like we’re just speaking in them.”

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