Page 8 of Best Kept Vows

“Oh, honey, thank you for ordering champagne for us.” I forced the words out with a smile that felt like it might crack my face. If I didn’t cling to that fake sweetness, I’d scream right there in the middle of this historic Savannah establishment and fall apart for good.

Sebastian kissed my forehead. “I’ll see you at home.”

“Okay.”

“Ah…congratulations, Ophelia,” Jane murmured as if it was an afterthought, which it probably was.

“Thank you, Jane.”

I was a good society wife; I knew how to be polite to people I couldn't stand. But this was the first time I had to do so while wondering if this woman, whom I found intolerable, was having an affair with my husband of twenty-two years.

After they left, I slumped in the chair as if all my energy had vanished. Ada put her hand on mine, and I immediately went back to being a society wife with a smile plastered on my face.

“Don’t do that,” my daughter admonished. “You’re hurt. Don’t pretend you’re not.”

I felt tears at the back of my eyes. I wouldn’t let them flow. I wouldn’t let my daughter know that her father hurt me—I wouldn’t come between them.

I shrugged. “I’m fine. Let’s drink the champagne. It’s Krug, the good stuff.” I forced a bright smile. I was good at that. I was good at pretending—after all, I’d been doing it for years.

I pretended to be unaffected when Sebastian’s family treated me like I was less than. My parents and siblingsnevertreated my husband like that. I grew up in a modest but loving family in Maplewood, New Jersey. We didn’t have the governor over for dinner, but we were good to one another, unlike what I saw in the Boone household.

My father-in-law, Abraham, handed over the companyonlyafter suffering a stroke and now being in awheelchair. Years before, he stubbornly refused when Sebastian asked, which caused a rift in the family. Sebastian walked away from the business and built his consulting firm, which was successful. It's not like we have Boone family money, but we did well enough to give ourselves a good life.

Sebastian’s sister, Colette—Coco—didn’t get along well with her brother because her husband had a chip the size of Montana on his shoulder. Bryce worked at Boone Metals and had done so since before he married Coco. His family used to have money, which they lost, and now his only source of income was a job-non-job that paid him an exorbitant amount of money, which he didn’t earn. He resented that Abraham had given Boone Metals to Sebastian, who hadleft the company in a snit, which, according to him, was a betrayal.

But Abraham had always made it clear that when he gave up the company, it would be his son’s to run. This led to tense dinners and some shouting matches, which my mother-in-law, Dolly, invariably blamed on Sebastian and somehowme.

I was the Jezebel who’d led her son on the path that took himawayfrom his family, which was entirely unfair since we lived in Savannah, and I didn’t interfere with what my husband did for work.In addition, Sebastian wasalwaysthere for his parents and sister, regardless of whether the children or I needed him.

My birth family was completely different.

Dad and Mama were both educators. My father used to teach history at the local high school, and my mother was alibrarian. They were both retired now and lived in Chapel Hill in North Carolina because that’s where my older sister, Miranda, lived with her husband. My nephew, Victor, had special needs, which was why my parents decided to live close to them so they could help. I was close to my family—and yet I hadn’t told them about the problems Sebastian and I were having. However, they were starting to guess since I’d come to Thanksgiving in North Carolina last year without him, and the year before, he’d had to leave early because there was an emergency at work.

“To you, Mama,” Ada toasted, holding up her drink.

I clinked my glass to hers. “I couldn’t have done this without y’all. Tristan and you have been my rocks.” And then, because I felt obligated, I added, “And your father, of course.”

Ada made a face. “Mama, stop.”

“What, sweetheart?”

“He missed your graduation. He’s missed your birthdays. He’s missed anniversaries.” She huffed out a sharp breath. “He’s missing,period! And that’s how it’s been since he took over Grandpa’s company.”

Neither Tristan nor Ada thought of Boone Metals astheirlegacy, though Sebastian used that as the reason he was working so hard.

“He has a big job, and the company is in trouble.” I gave her the standard line that I’d been giving everyone for the past three years.

Sebastian always worked a lot, and though he never forgot the kids and their birthdays, games, or graduations,since he took over the company, he’d stopped showing up for the smaller, quieter moments—the ones that mattered just as much. He missed dinners and weekend mornings, school projects, and lazy afternoons. And, somewhere along the line, he stopped showing up formealtogether.

So, yes, the companywasin trouble, but due to his negligence and my inability to stand up for myself, I believed thatnowour marriage was in trouble as well. Since I knew that Sebastian wouldn’t lift a finger tofixour failing relationship and I wasslowlybut definitively getting tired of being the bad guy who tried to talk to my husband about him spending time with me like I was a nagging wife, I wasn’t sure the marriage would survive.

“Mama, let’s not talk about things that make you sad.”

By constantly making excuses for Sebastian, what was I teaching my daughter? And that’s when I asked myself a question:if Ada was married to a man like Sebastian, what advice would I give her?

“Mama, you okay? You’ve suddenly gone pale.” Ada took my hand in hers.

I’d ask her to leave her negligent husband’s ass and be her own person.

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