Elena read the letter once.
Then she placed it back in the envelope.
“Did you know about this?” she asked Adrian.
He looked at his mother.
“Mum, this isn’t what we discussed.”
Elena turned toward him.
“What did you discuss?”
Victoria answered.
“Your future.”
“With my fiancé.”
“Yes.”
“Without me.”
Victoria folded her hands.
“Not every conversation needs an audience.”
Elena looked down at the envelope.
It referred to financial assistance, confidentiality, and avoiding unnecessary public distress.
The ring seemed suddenly heavy on her finger.
“You brought me here to pay me to leave?”
Victoria leaned closer.
“I brought you here to offer a dignified way forward.”
“For whom?”
Adrian spoke quietly.
“We don’t need to do this tonight.”
Elena stared at him.
Tonight.
As though the problem was timing.
Victoria changed her approach.
“Let me see the ring, dear.”
Elena did not move.
“It belonged to my mother,” Victoria said. “I have a right to look at it.”
Adrian had told Elena that history when he proposed. She had been touched by it.
Now she removed the ring because she did not want Victoria reaching for her hand.
She placed it beside the envelope.
Victoria picked it up.
Then the waiter arrived with the wine.
The next few moments would remain perfectly clear in Elena’s memory.
The pour.
The smile.
The sentence.
The ring disappearing beneath the surface.
And Adrian doing nothing.
