Everett held the red dress up to the window light and decided it would do.
Silk, no sleeves, cut low in the back. Marisol's color, not Elodie's.
He did not think about her face when she opened the box.
Everett: Send this up to the penthouse. With the card.
Everett: She wears it Saturday for the Saye dinner. No excuses.
Everett: Write this on the card. Wear the dress. Marisol sits at my right.
He said it the way he said everything else, like the whole world had already agreed.
Then he made the other call, the one that kept Ruth in her soft bed.
Everett: Ruth's rate goes back to the old number. Backdate it. And lose the shared ward paperwork.
His assistant wrote it down and kept her eyes on the page.
Everyone in this building knew exactly what he was doing. Nobody said it out loud.
Elodie came up an hour later with the card in her hand and the dress still folded in its box.
Elodie: What is this, Everett?
Everett: It's a dress. You used to know what those were.
Elodie: It's Marisol's color.
Everett: Marisol sits at my right on Saturday. You sit at my left.
Everett: Smile. Say thank you. That is all I need from you.
Elodie: You want me to smile while your first love takes my chair?
Everett: She's not taking anything. She's working. You could try it.
Everett: I paid your mother's rate back this morning. The old number.
Everett: So Saturday you give me one good evening. No tears. No scenes about Willa.
The color left her face. He had seen that look before, across the lunch table.
Elodie: You paid it so you could put a price on my daughter's name.
The door stood open a hand's width. Frankie was outside with a tray, and she did not move away.
She heard every word.
Everett: Sign for the damn dress with my assistant. She'll take it down.
Elodie: No.
She said it flat, right in front of his assistant, with Frankie still in the doorway.
He came around the desk and stopped close to her, close enough to see her jaw tighten.
His eyes went to her mouth and stayed there one second too long.
Everett: Don't do this here.
Elodie: I'll come Saturday. I'll sit where you put me.
Elodie: But I won't wear her color and I won't pretend Willa never happened. That's your price. Not mine.
He did not raise his voice. He never did in front of staff.
But his jaw moved once, and his assistant took a step back from the desk.
Elodie walked out with her head up. Frankie went with her.
Through the glass he watched Frankie put a hand on her arm and lean in close.
Whatever Frankie said made her shoulders drop, like a knot had come loose.
He did not like that. He did not like the way Frankie looked at his wife.
Saturday would show Elodie what her no cost her.
He texted Marisol one line. Wear red.