Chapter 5 - WHY DIANE WANTED AN EMPTY CHAIR
Megan drove to Diane’s house in Wellesley that evening.
She did not go inside.
They sat on the screened porch where Diane once served lemonade to both daughters after tennis lessons.
“Why did you offer me five hundred dollars?”
Diane crossed her arms.
“I told you.”
“Tell me without insulting my job.”
Diane looked toward the yard.
Megan waited.
Finally:
“Martin said someone connected to Beacon might attend.”
Megan’s stomach tightened.
“Richard?”
“I don’t remember the name.”
“And?”
“He said there was a consultant creating unnecessary problems.”
“Did he say that consultant was me?”
“No.”
Diane met her eyes.
“But Sophie mentioned Beacon during Sunday dinner last month. Then she mentioned you had a major industrial client. I asked Martin whether there was any overlap.”
“What did he say?”
“He said it would be better if you weren’t at the wedding.”
There it was.
Diane had not invented the exclusion alone.
“And five hundred dollars?”
Diane looked offended.
“I thought covering your hotel cancellation and travel would make it less personal.”
Megan almost laughed.
“You paid your daughter not to attend her sister’s wedding because the groom suggested it might help his business.”
Diane’s voice sharpened.
“I was protecting Sophie.”
“From what?”
“From having the happiest day of her life turned into one of your professional crusades.”
Megan leaned back.
Ten years earlier, after Megan left Carlyle & Frost Consulting, Diane had said almost exactly the same thing.
You always have to turn everything into a crusade.
Megan had resigned after refusing to endorse a cost-savings plan she believed concealed safety maintenance reductions at a packaging plant.
She lost a promotion.
Her fiancé at the time ended their engagement three months later, tired of the financial instability and public dispute.
Sophie had watched Megan move back into Diane’s guest room at twenty-seven and assumed their mother’s interpretation was correct:
Megan could never let anything go.
Diane still saw that year as proof of self-destruction.
Beacon saw it differently.
Richard had hired Megan partly because of it.
“You know what’s funny?” Megan said.
“What?”
“The thing you’re most embarrassed by is the reason Beacon trusts me.”
Diane looked unconvinced.
Megan stood.
“And Martin knew enough about that trust to want me out of the room.”
Diane’s certainty finally cracked.
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying you didn’t protect Sophie from me.”
May you like
Megan opened the porch door.
“You protected Martin from being recognized by someone who asks questions.”
