Chapter 4 - PATRICIA’S FAMILY TRADITION
Patricia called me from Andrew’s phone.
I answered because I wanted the call documented.
Her first sentence:
“You’ve made enough of a spectacle.”
I nearly admired the consistency.
“Did you call to ask about Sophia and Chloe?”
“They are fine.”
“You haven’t spoken to them.”
“They are children.”
Exactly.
Not people.
Extensions.
Legacy containers.
I said:
“Why did you take their food?”
Silence.
Then:
“You know perfectly well.”
“I want to hear you say it.”
“Lauren.”
“Say it.”
Her voice hardened.
“In our family, sons have always carried the Vance name.”
“And therefore daughters eat leftovers?”
“Don’t be vulgar.”
I laughed.
“You physically removed their dinner.”
“The head table has traditions.”
“They weren’t at the head table.”
Silence.
That caught her.
Because even after excluding them from honor, she had still policed what they ate.
This was not tradition.
It was hierarchy.
I asked:
“Did Andrew know you planned it?”
Long pause.
My heartbeat changed.
“Patricia?”
“He knew I had concerns.”
Not answer.
“Did he know you were serving the girls separate food?”
Another pause.
“He said you needed to understand that this event was important to his investors.”
There.
Not full knowledge.
Enough.
Andrew had known his mother planned some kind of public “lesson.”
He simply expected me to absorb it quietly.
That was almost worse than surprise.
Then Patricia said:
“You’re forgetting who gave you the Vance name.”
I stared out the window.
“My company had Horizon in its name before I married Andrew.”
Silence.
“I added Vance after marriage.”
Patricia sounded offended.
“As you should have.”
I smiled.
“Maybe.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
Not yet.
The call ended three minutes later.
I saved it.
Then I walked into my office and stared at our corporate logo.
Vance & Horizon Capital.
For eleven years, I had considered the name practical.
Unified.
Family.
Now every time I saw it, I heard Patricia telling my daughters they could not continue the bloodline.
Interesting contradiction.
My daughters were apparently unworthy of the name.
May you like
Yet the Vance family had spent years benefiting from mine.
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