Page 14 of Matrimonial Merger

“You struggled with me. I gave youeverythingI could. I dedicated my life to making it out—for you—and you made it out. But you ended up in bed with people who don’t understand any of that. And now? Now I have to share grandchildren with that… that woman?”

“That woman is Daphne’s mother. And she just lost her husband and is suffering through the holidays without him—we all are.”

“Yeah, well no one gave a shit about the fact that your father ran off and then took his own life a year later in Florida,” Mom said. “No one cares about me and what I went through as a teenage mother—the type of person everyone loathes and judges.Thatis why Daphne’s mother went off on me.”

“It’s not,” I chuckled. “It’s really not.”

Mom rolled her eyes. “This is what I am talking about?—”

“Mother, she doesn’t think about you. Danna doesn’t give a flying fuck about you. You two may sometimes share air, but you’re right… you have little in common.”

“I have beat her innumeroustennis competitions?—”

“It doesn’t matter. She has her friends. Those friends are… never going to be your friends. And I won’t ever understand it. Nor will Daphne, who isn’t like her mother in oh-so-many-ways, Mom. Daphne isn’t pretentious. You’d know that if you ever sat down and had a conversation with her that wasn’t a series of questions in a deposition.”

“Daphne’s mother?—”

“Went off on you because Daphne was feeling ill and she knew Daphne was pregnant. The only people who did were Danna, Jo, and myself. You set her off. Just like you go off when you think one of us is being sidelined, Danna went off to defend her daughter. And I get the impulse because you are testing every bit of my patience right now. Daphne is upset. She’s done. She was done with you before she even knew you were going to be here.”

“Why?”

“You’ve never said a god damn nice thing about Daphne!”

“I said she was well-educated.”

“Only to imply that she’s privileged as hell.”

“All she does is argue?—”

“She’s an attorney.”

“Doesn’t that get old?”

I smiled. “No. I love her. I couldn’t want anyone else if I tried, Mom. She’s fucking perfect. I’m as happy as I have ever been.”

Mom’s face dropped like I’d just kicked a puppy.

“Mom, I think you think she should have suffered more to deserve the success she got, right?”

She didn’t respond.

“That’s ludicrous. And it’s insulting. In two weeks, she’s getting on a plane to go testify in court about a man sending revenge porn tape to other cabinet ministers before leaking it to the media?—”

“And yet, that doesn’t bother you? That she?—”

“Stop it! The next words out of your mouth should be anything but a suggestion that she’s unworthy because someone abused her—the way my sperm donor did me before leaving.”

Mom’s gaze dropped again.

“I didn’t love struggling,” I said. “I didn’t love being the man of the house always. I didn’t enjoy being an outsider who constantly felt the need to prove I fit in—that I wasoneof them. I’m not. I never will be. That’s fine. I didn’t want to be. But to think everyone should have to suffer and struggle? I am fighting every fucking day to make thingslessof a struggle for people, Mom. Childhood trauma isn’t a god damn badge of honor.”

“It makes you a better person to come from something—to work.”

“And Daphne has. She has worked.”

“You had to struggle. You can call it trauma—call it what you like—but it made you the man you are today, Cal,” Mom insisted.

I stood and shook my head. “No, Mom. You did. David did. Life did. I worked my ass off—just like I watched you do. But it wasn’t without problems. It wasn’t without issues. You think Chloe and I are perfect for some ungodly reason?—”

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