Chapter 9 9

Gigi descended the stairs slowly. Hunter rushed to help her, but she waved him away.

She walked straight to Iris. She took Iris's hands in hers. Her skin was like paper, dry and thin.

"Grandmother," Hunter said. "Iris was just leaving. She was being incredibly rude to Dorothea."

"Shut up, Hunter," Gigi said. She didn't look at him. She kept her eyes on Iris.

"You're finally free, my bird," Gigi whispered.

"Yes, Gigi," Iris said.

"They don't know, do they?" Gigi asked.

"Know what?" Eleanor demanded. "Mother, what are you talking about?"

Gigi turned to face her family. She looked at them with disgust.

"You think Iris is a charity case," Gigi said. "You think she's a burden we've been carrying."

"She is!" Kamala said. "She's a felon with no job!"

"She saved this family!" Gigi shouted. Her voice cracked.

Hunter stepped forward. "What?"

"Four years ago," Gigi said, pointing a shaking finger at Hunter. "When the company was on the brink. When every bank in the city turned you away. You think that anonymous investor who saved us was a miracle?"

"It was a Swiss firm," Hunter said, confused. "The due diligence checked out."

"The diligence was a smokescreen!" Gigi laughed bitterly. "It was Iris. She invested more in this family than just money. She invested her own future. A future none of you were worthy of."

The room spun. Hunter grabbed the back of the sofa.

"Iris...?" he whispered, looking at her. "You... you had that kind of money?"

Iris squeezed Gigi's hand. "It doesn't matter now."

"It matters!" Gigi cried. "And that prison sentence? The 'felony'? You have no idea what she was protecting. The secrets she kept to keep this family from imploding. She went through hell so that your father could keep his reputation, and you all called her a disgrace!"

Hunter looked like he was going to be sick. "Dad said... Dad said it was a clerical error she made."

"Your father told you what you needed to hear," Gigi spat. "And Iris let him. She wore the shame so none of you had to."

Silence. Absolute, suffocating silence.

Dorothea looked terrified. She realized she was standing next to a woman who had sacrificed more for this man than she had ever imagined.

Hunter looked at Iris. His eyes were wet.

"Why?" he croaked. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you were my husband," Iris said quietly. "I thought we were a team. I thought... I thought you would have done the same for me."

Hunter flinched. He knew he wouldn't have.

"And you treated her like dirt," Gigi hissed at Eleanor. "Because she didn't give you a grandchild."

Eleanor looked down. "Well... that is a wife's duty..."

Iris cut her off, her voice flat and cold. "You should thank God every day that I never allowed another Rutledge to be brought into this world through me."

Hunter looked like she had stabbed him.

Iris let go of Gigi's hand.

"Goodbye, Gigi," she said.

She turned and walked out. The sound of her heels on the marble was the only sound in the world.