Chapter 11 - MARGARET ASKED IF I HAD MARRIED DANIEL FOR A REASONHer worst question came months later.
“Did your father encourage you to marry Daniel because of Calloway Industries?”
I stared.
“No.”
She looked uncertain.
So I explained.
Daniel and I met at an airport.
Flight delay.
He was eating terrible nachos.
I told him they looked radioactive.
He said:
“Jealousy is ugly.”
We talked for three hours.
He didn’t know my surname beyond Ellis.
Dad didn’t meet him until eight months later.
No strategic marriage.
No families combining empires.
No secret plan.
Just two people whose flight to Chicago was delayed.
That ordinary beginning mattered to me.
Then Margaret whispered:
“So you really loved him.”
I almost laughed.
“Yes.”
“I thought…”
“I know what you thought.”
She thought someone like me had to be after something.
Because she believed I had nothing.
Her worldview had turned affection into economic suspicion.
Then she said:
“I was cruel to you.”
Finally.
May you like
No qualifier.
“Yes.”
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