Chapter 7 - THE CHAIR BESIDE SOPHIE
By summer, Nathan’s house felt quieter.
Not emptier.
Quieter.
There was a difference.
Rosa no longer arrived before sunrise.
Eli no longer sat at the kitchen table every afternoon.
Nathan missed both.
Sophie missed them more.
But the children remained friends.
Actual friends.
Not friendship maintained because their mothers worked in the same building.
Eli came over.
Sophie went to his apartment.
The first time Nathan dropped her there, he stayed too long in the parking lot.
Sophie opened the car door.
“Dad.”
“What?”
“You can leave.”
“I know.”
“You’re still here.”
“I’m evaluating the neighborhood.”
“It’s an apartment building.”
“I see that.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Eli’s mom says you’re weird now.”
“Now?”
Sophie laughed and slammed the door.
Nathan watched her run inside.
Then he drove away.
Six months earlier, Caroline might have called the building inappropriate.
Nathan now understood how absurd that would have been.
People lived there.
Children laughed there.
Rosa came home tired there.
Eli had his own room there.
A home did not need eleven acres to matter.
Nathan changed his own life too.
Not dramatically enough to make magazines care.
Dramatically enough for Sophie.
He reduced international travel.
Moved executive meetings.
Stopped allowing his assistant to screen calls from home.
Tuesday dinner became sacred.
Thursday morning school drop-off became his.
He missed one.
Snowstorm.
Sophie texted:
You owe me pancakes.
Nathan replied:
Extortion.
She sent:
Yes.
Trust had become ordinary.
That was the goal.
In August, Sophie asked to invite Eli on the Cole family trip to Maine.
Nathan said:
“Ask Rosa.”
Rosa said:
“No.”
Sophie was horrified.
“Why?”
Rosa laughed.
“Because Eli has soccer camp.”
“He can skip.”
“No.”
“But Dad has a boat.”
Rosa looked at Sophie.
“Then I’m sure the boat will survive without him.”
Nathan tried not to smile.
This was exactly what he wanted.
No one treating his wealth as gravity.
Eli came for the final weekend instead.
They fished badly.
Burned marshmallows.
Got eaten alive by mosquitoes.
Nathan took a photograph of Sophie and Eli on the dock.
He did not post it.
He did not need to prove anything.
It went in a wooden frame on his desk.
The frame Eli had made for Sophie’s birthday remained beside her bed.
In September, school started.
One afternoon Sophie came home angry.
Nathan found her throwing her backpack onto the kitchen floor.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“That looked like very aggressive nothing.”
She glared.
Then:
“Lily said Eli only goes to our school because your company pays.”
Nathan went still.
“What did you say?”
“That she’s mean.”
“Okay.”
“And that her dad’s company lost money last year.”
Nathan tried not to laugh.
“Sophie.”
“What?”
“Financial retaliation is probably unnecessary.”
“She deserved it.”
“Maybe.”
Sophie crossed her arms.
“She said he doesn’t belong there.”
Nathan’s expression changed.
There it was.
Again.
He sat.
“What did Eli say?”
“He left.”
“Did you follow?”
“No.”
Nathan waited.
Sophie’s anger collapsed.
“Should I have?”
“I don’t know.”
“I wanted to yell at Lily.”
“Did Eli want you to?”
Sophie stopped.
Nathan continued.
“You’re his friend.”
“Yes.”
“Not his bodyguard.”
She looked at him.
“So what do I do?”
“Ask.”
That evening she called Eli.
Nathan did not listen.
The next afternoon she told him:
“He said he wants me to act normal.”
“Then act normal.”
“He also wants my chocolate pudding tomorrow.”
“That sounds manipulative.”
Sophie smiled.
“He said rich people have pudding.”
Nathan laughed.
Good.
Eli could joke about the difference now without believing it defined him.
In October, the school hosted a family dinner.
Nathan arrived with Sophie.
Rosa arrived separately with Eli.
There was assigned seating.
Nathan looked at the cards.
COLE FAMILY.
Nathan.
Sophie.
Two empty seats.
MARTINEZ FAMILY.
Rosa.
Eli.
Across the room.
Sophie frowned.
“Why are we separate?”
Nathan shrugged.
“Different families.”
She considered.
Then smiled.
“Okay.”
He loved that answer.
Different.
Not unequal.
During dessert, Caroline appeared at the edge of the room.
Nathan had not seen her in months.
She approached carefully.
Sophie smiled.
Not broadly.
But genuinely.
“Hi.”
Caroline smiled back.
“Hi.”
She had been volunteering with a literacy program through her therapist’s recommendation.
Nathan initially suspected public relations.
Then learned she had specifically requested not to be photographed.
That changed his view.
Not erased the past.
Changed the present.
Caroline looked toward Rosa.
“May I speak to you?”
Rosa studied her.
“Here.”
Caroline nodded.
Fair.
Nathan and Sophie stepped several feet away.
Eli remained beside his mother.
Caroline said:
“I never apologized to you properly.”
Rosa’s expression remained neutral.
“No.”
“I accused you.”
“Yes.”
“I threatened your job.”
“Yes.”
“I used your need for employment to make you accept things you shouldn’t have had to accept.”
Rosa’s eyes changed slightly.
Caroline continued.
“And I treated your son as if his friendship with Sophie was something suspicious.”
Silence.
“I am sorry.”
Rosa looked at her.
Then:
“Do you understand why I may never trust you?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Caroline nodded.
Rosa continued.
“I accept the apology.”
Caroline’s eyes filled.
“But.”
She waited.
“Acceptance is not an invitation back into my life.”
Caroline smiled sadly.
“I understand.”
“Good.”
They shook hands.
No hug.
No tears together.
No miracle.
Nathan thought it was one of the healthiest reconciliations he had ever witnessed.
Later, Sophie asked:
“Are you and Caroline friends?”
Nathan considered.
“No.”
“Enemies?”
“No.”
“What then?”
“People who mattered to each other once.”
Sophie frowned.
“That’s sad.”
“Sometimes.”
“Would you ever marry her?”
“No.”
“Does she know?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Nathan laughed.
Sophie leaned against him.
“I don’t want another stepmom.”
“That seems premature.”
“I’m serious.”
“What if I meet someone someday?”
“You can date when I’m eighteen.”
Nathan stared.
“Interesting.”
“I made a rule.”
“I was unaware you had that authority.”
“I live here.”
Nathan smiled.
“Fair argument.”
Then Sophie became serious.
“If you do meet someone…”
“Yes?”
“They have to like Eli.”
Nathan looked toward the other side of the room.
Rosa and Eli were laughing over something.
“No.”
Sophie frowned.
Nathan continued.
“They don’t have to like everybody you like.”
“Then what?”
“They have to respect them.”
She thought.
“That’s better.”
Nathan nodded.
“It is.”
Three months later, on a freezing January morning, Nathan received a call from Rosa.
“Something happened.”
His chest tightened.
“Eli?”
“He’s fine.”
“What happened?”
She sounded as though she were crying.
“My hotel.”
Nathan stood.
“What about it?”
“I got promoted.”
He smiled.
“To what?”
“Executive housekeeper.”
Nathan laughed.
“Rosa.”
“I know.”
“That’s incredible.”
“Eli says I’m rich now.”
Nathan laughed harder.
“How much does he think you make?”
“Apparently enough for pudding.”
Nathan almost dropped the phone.
That afternoon, Nathan and Sophie arrived at Rosa’s apartment with cake.
A grocery-store cake.
Rosa looked approving.
“You’re learning.”
“I wanted the six-hundred-dollar one.”
Sophie said:
“I stopped him.”
Rosa hugged her.
Eli opened the box.
Written in blue icing:
CONGRATULATIONS, BOSS.
Rosa stared at Nathan.
He shrugged.
“Eli’s word.”
She smiled.
The four of them ate around Rosa’s dining table.
Small apartment.
Cheap plates.
One chair wobbled.
Nathan could not remember enjoying a meal more.
And when Sophie raised her plastic cup and said:
“To Rosa!”
Nathan raised his too.
Eli added:
“To pudding!”
Rosa groaned.
Nathan laughed.
Nobody in that room needed to forget who had money.
May you like
They simply no longer confused money with who mattered.
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