Danny answered each one like she had all the time in the world. Priya’s husband found her against the far wall.
Nate Nolan was not a man who raised his voice. He didn’t need to. 43 years old, built a commercial real estate empire from the ground up.
The kind of man who communicated everything essential without changing his expression. He leaned in close.
“Tell me what happened.” He said quietly. “I didn’t know who she was. You invited our employee to a charity gala as what?
A social joke? And she turns out to be Adize Osay’s daughter.” He paused. “That’s not a sentence I expected to say tonight.
I didn’t know. You were cruel to her for 7 months without knowing.” His voice didn’t change.
“What exactly did you think you were doing?” Priya said nothing. The Osay family has business relationships with every major development firm in Europe and three of the largest commercial real estate funds in the world.
Nate’s jaw was tight. “Adize Osay personally sits on the board of two major foundations that we have been trying to partner with for 18 months.
Do you understand what you’ve done?” Priya’s throat closed. “Fix it.” Nate said. “Tonight or tomorrow you’ll be fixing it without my name.”
He straightened his jacket, walked away, and Priya stood there alone in the middle of the most exclusive gala in Chicago.
For the first time in her adult life understanding what it felt like to take up space in a room and wish you didn’t.
She waited until the crowd around Danny had thinned. Then she crossed the room. She walked the same marble floor she’d walked a hundred times at events like this, but it had never felt this long before.
“Danny.” She kept her voice steady by force of will. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”
Danny excused herself from the conversation she was having gracefully, without showing anything on her face.
She followed Priya to a quiet alcove near the back of the room. Priya had prepared words.
They evaporated. “I’m sorry.” She said instead. Just that. Raw and graceless and real. “What I did, the invitation, the way I said it, I was trying to humiliate you.
I’ve treated you badly for 7 months. I’m sorry.” The silence that followed was the longest of her life.
