“Strangely,” I said, “maybe.”
His eyes softened. “That’s promising.”
Before I could answer, Nicholas appeared.
He looked different now. Less polished. His bow tie sat slightly crooked, and a faint flush had risen along his neck.
“Jenna,” he said. “Can I speak with you?”
Allison touched his arm. “Nicholas.”
“I know,” he said quietly. “I just need five minutes.”
I studied him.
The old instinct was to protect him from discomfort, to make the conversation easier before it began. I had spent years doing that. Laughing off remarks. Explaining away dismissals. Pretending indifference so he never had to confront the damage.
Not tonight.
“Here is fine,” I said.
He glanced around.
People were pretending not to watch.
“Nicholas,” I added, “you chose a public room when you humiliated me. We can have a respectful conversation in one.”
His mouth tightened, then he nodded.
“I didn’t know about your work with Mr. Stewart.”
“That’s becoming a popular sentence tonight.”
He exhaled.
“I was wrong.”
The words sounded unfamiliar coming from him.
I waited.
He looked at Emmett, then back at me. “I made assumptions. About your career. About your life.”
“And about my worth.”
His face changed at that.
“Yes,” he said after a moment. “That too.”
A part of me had wanted him to deny it, because anger is easier when the other person refuses to understand. But he didn’t deny it. That made the moment more complicated.
“I need to apologize,” he said.
“You need to understand before you apologize.”
He swallowed. “Then tell me.”
So I did.
Not loudly. Not cruelly.
I told him what it felt like to be introduced as “my sister, she writes online” while he was introduced by title and salary. I told him what it felt like to save for two months for a wedding gift, only to be seated beside toddlers because I didn’t fit his image. I told him that his embarrassment of me had become so routine that I had started arriving at family gatherings already braced for the next small cut.
Nicholas listened.
At first, he looked defensive. Then uncomfortable. Then, finally, ashamed.