Suddenly, Eric was beside me, his voice a low hiss. “What did you tell your mother?”
“Just what I showed everyone. The reservation.”
“She thinks I’m a monster.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before booking yourself a luxury vacation while I’m stuck wrestling three babies in coach.”
He grabbed my arm, his grip tight. “This isn’t how it looks, Diane. It’s complicated.”
“Complicated? You booked a separate life, Eric. That’s not complicated. That’s deliberate.”
Then, a flight attendant approached, eyeing Eric’s grip on my arm. “Is everything alright here?”
He dropped my arm as if burned. But before I could answer, the attendant’s eyes widened as she glanced at Eric’s phone. “Oh my goodness…is this…Mr. Henderson? From Henderson Investments?”
The Henderson Legacy
Eric’s face drained of color. “Yes,” he mumbled, avoiding the flight attendant’s gaze. The flight attendant’s polite demeanor instantly shifted into one of deference. “Mr. Henderson, I had no idea…anything you need, just ask.” She bustled away, leaving Eric and me in an awkward silence. “This is about the firm,” he finally said, his voice barely a whisper.
“What does that even mean?” I asked, my voice trembling with suppressed anger.
“My father…he built Henderson Investments from nothing. He has…expectations. About appearances. About how the family is perceived.”
“So, you humiliated me and our children to uphold your father’s image?”
He flinched. “It’s not like that. He…he doesn’t approve of…extravagance. He believes in being frugal, showing humility. He would have been furious if I’d flown business class on a family vacation. It would have looked…bad to the shareholders.”
I stared at him, dumbfounded. “You sacrificed our comfort, our sanity, to appease your father’s outdated ideals?”
“It’s more than that! He’s been grooming me to take over the firm for years. He controls everything. The investments, the partnerships…even my personal life, to some extent.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking utterly defeated. “He wanted to see me…responsible. Capable of providing, but not… ostentatious.”
“And you just let him? You let him dictate how we live our lives?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’d always assumed his aloofness was simply a personality flaw, a lack of empathy. But it was something far more insidious. He was a puppet, controlled by a man who valued appearances over everything else.
Suddenly, the young woman across the aisle returned Tina to me, her eyes filled with concern. “She seems to be getting fussy again. Are you okay?”
Eric looked at me, desperation in his eyes. “Diane, please. Just pretend…pretend this is all a misunderstanding.”
The Message Unsent
I wanted to scream. To lash out. To demand answers for every sleepless night, every moment of loneliness. But looking at Eric, truly seeing him, I felt a strange pang of pity. He wasn’t a monster, not entirely. He was a prisoner, trapped by his father’s expectations and his own inability to break free. But that didn’t excuse his actions. It didn’t erase the pain he’d inflicted.
“What about the hotel?” I asked, my voice surprisingly calm. “The oceanfront suite for you, the standard room for us?”
He sighed. “That was…part of the plan. My father wanted me to ‘network’ with potential investors at the resort. He booked the suite under a business expense account.”
“So, you were going to pretend to be on a business trip while we…”