Page 32 of Loss and Damages
“Of course, Jemma. I will tell you anything you want to know.”
“It’s about Dominic. You don’t— I mean, you favored Leo. Why?”
“Dominic belongs to his father.” She stiffens, and an ugly grimace mars her beautiful face.
“I don’t understand.”
“Do you have children?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then I will have a difficult time explaining. My husband loved me when he married me, that much is true. I never loved him, though many said to give it time. Our marriage brought together two strong families. I did my part for mine, as he did for his.”
I blink. “An arranged marriage? That doesn’t happen anymore.”
“It wasn’t that black and white. I was raised with the...hope I would marry Raphael Milano, but at university I fell in love with another man. He wanted to run away and elope but just asI was about to agree, my father had a heart attack. It was then I realized that my life had never belonged to me, and that summer I married Raphael.”
“Did your father live?”
Athena smiles, but it doesn’t light her face. “Yes. He walked me down the aisle. I hated my husband for stealing my life away from me, and when I became pregnant with Dominic, I wanted nothing to do with him. Raphael raised him, molded him into the man he wanted him to be.”
“You made Dominic grow up without a mother’s love.” Sadness burns in my throat for the man who asked me to attend this fundraiser as a kindness to his mother.
“I tried, but when I held him, I felt nothing.”
“When Leo was born, what changed?”
“That is something I am not at liberty to tell you. I’m sorry, Jemma.” She holds my hand and cups my cheek. “You are a beautiful young lady and it’s no mystery why Leo loved you. Perhaps not in the way I believed, but even so, as friends. Live your life by no one else’s rules, dear one. I should have eloped. I often dream of how my life would be had I followed my heart. I’ll never know. Goodnight.”
Athena stands and walks across the floor, and people part to let her by. Two hulky men join her and usher her out the ballroom doors.
I sit alone at the table as the room empties.
Dominic disappeared and I’ll have to hail a cab to Jeremy’s, spend the night, and ask Tara to drive me home in the morning. The snub hurts, but it’s to be expected. I made it clear that I wanted nothing to do with him or his family after tonight and he beat me to it.
It’s fine. It’s easier to cut ties. Leo’s secret is safe and I shouldn’t feel guilty about that.
I ask a waiter where the restrooms are, and he points across the ballroom and directs me down a hallway that I didn’t notice when Dominic and I arrived.
An attendant is sitting just inside the door, and after I relieve myself, wash my hands and reapply my lipstick, I tip her five dollars and feel strange doing it. I worry that it’s not enough, though she doesn’t give me any indication either way, simply saying thank you and to have a pleasant evening. This is definitely not my world.
Dominic’s leaning against the opposite wall when I push the door open, his head tilted back and his eyes closed. After speaking with Athena, I have a difficult time labeling him a greedy billionaire who had the nerve to attend a homeless benefit when he’s in the middle of a deal to displace hundreds of families out of the only homes they can afford. Now I see him as a broken boy, a child who would never be good enough to earn his mother’s love all because of who is father is.
How difficult it must be for him to pretend he doesn’t care.
“I thought you left me.”
He cracks his eyes open. “I’m sorry to have disappointed you.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Are you ready to go?”
“Yes.”
“I ordered the limo. It will be waiting out front.”
“Thank you. What did you do while your mother and I talked?” I ask as we walk across the ballroom. Small groups of people still stand around gossiping, but no one pays us any attention.
