The Hidden Daughter-From Abandoned Small-Town Girl to Wall Street Legend Chapter 05
I didn’t say much.
At an event like this, airing too much dirty laundry starts to feel like a sympathy play. So I kept it light-just a few breezy
sentences, tossed off like they meant
nothing. But I could tell that every single word landed on Mom like a sledgehammer.
Still, I wasn’t done with her.
I looked out at the sea of faces and, right at the end of my speech, added one last thing.
“Earlier this evening, a woman accused me of stealing her necklace.”
“Her daughter slapped me across the face without bothering to ask a single question.”
“I have to say-if that’s the caliber of
student your institution produces, I’m not. impressed.”
After I stepped off the stage, James was
waiting for me with Sophia in tow. Mom stood a few paces behind them, her fingers
white-knuckled around the hem of her
dress.
James nudged the girl forward and made her apologize to me.
That’s how the real world works. People only respect strength. That’s why I never wasted time hoping Mom would look back at me on her own. If I became powerful enough, she’d
come to me whether she wanted to or not.
“Sue, your speech was incredible tonight,”
James said, all warmth and smiles. “I’ve told
Sophia more than once that she should look
up to someone like you.”
He was chatty, relentless-toasting me,
clinking glasses, doing everything he could
to smooth things over and pretend the scene had never happened.
“Is that right?” I tilted my head. “Then
maybe you should pull her out of school for a
semester. Let her stay home and learn some
basic human decency before she goes back to
her studies.”
I looked at the three of them with a smile
that didn’t reach my eyes. What a happy little family.
I’d seen enough. I gave them a brief nod and walked right past.
After the gala ended, I grabbed my coat and headed out of the banquet hall.
“Holly! Holly!”
Mom came rushing after me, calling my
name in a hushed, frantic whisper.
“What-is my name really that
embarrassing to say out loud?”
Grandma once told me that Mom was the
one who named me. She loved lotus flowers,
so she gave me her surname and called me
Su He-Holly, in the life I’d built for myself.
All these years, I’d written my name with care, every stroke deliberate, hoping that someday she’d be the one to say it.
Her eyes were red-rimmed, her expression. tight with anxiety.
“Can you can you talk to James? Convince him not to suspend Sophia.”
She hesitated, then pressed on. “I… I had not idea you’d become so accomplished. If you just said the word, James would listen.”
“Please. Sophia is about to graduate. She can’t afford a suspension.”
“Holly, I know I’ve failed you, but… I had my
reasons.”
Even though she was begging, there was an undercurrent of entitlement in her voice-as
if this were something I simply owed her.
I watched her little performance with a calm I didn’t have to fake, then cut in without.
warning.
“What reasons?”
