Chapter 6 - The Cold Hand-off
I didn't hug her. I didn't smile.
I looked down at the navy and gold thread, feeling the thick embroidery beneath my fingertips. Then, without breaking eye contact with Marlene, I methodically folded the blanket in half.
Then in half again.
The room grew very still. The soft clinking of silver forks stopped completely.
"Joanna?" Marlene whispered, her smile faltering at the edges, a tiny crack appearing in her porcelain mask. "Aren't you going to hold it up for the photographer?"
"No, Marlene," I said. My voice wasn't loud, but in the dead silence of the Oak Room, it traveled to every corner, every table, every ear.
I took two steps forward, closing the distance between us. I lifted the folded cashmere blanket and placed it firmly back into Marlene’s arms.
"We told you no," I said clearly. "Levi told you in our kitchen. Levi told you over the phone. And Levi told you four days ago in a text message. Our son’s name is not Benjamin. It will never be Benjamin."
Marlene’s arms reflexively clutched the blanket against her chest. Her face turned an alarming shade of mottled red beneath her foundation.
"Joanna..." Marlene hissed in an urgent whisper, her eyes darting around the room, desperately trying to salvage the performance. "Don't make a scene. People are watching. This is a family heirloom."
"You made the scene, Marlene, when you invited forty people to watch you stage an ambush," I answered, keeping my tone perfectly measured, devoid of tears, devoid of rage, filled only with unyielding steel. "You thought if you humiliated us publicly, we would fold. We are not folding. Take your blanket back."
A sharp collective gasp rippled through the guests.
"Levi!" Marlene cried out, turning her gaze to her son, her voice suddenly trembling with manufactured vulnerability. "Are you going to let your wife speak to me this way? After everything I did? After the thousands of dollars I spent on this afternoon?"
Levi stepped forward until he was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with me. He didn't flinch.
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"My wife is speaking for both of us, Mom," Levi said, his voice echoing off the walls with terrifying clarity. "We warned you. We begged you to drop this. You wanted an audience? Well, now you have one. The answer is still no."
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