Chapter 13 - CLAUDIA’S MARRIAGE LASTS, BUT THE CLUB DOESN’T BECOME HER DOWRY
The wedding itself remained legally valid.
A destroyed cake does not invalidate a marriage.
Neither does a family ownership dispute.
Claudia left for a short honeymoon two days later.
No dramatic abandonment by the groom.
No new villain.
He had almost nothing to do with the Belladonna plan.
Good.
This was Claudia and Vera.
When Claudia returned, she resigned from wedding-related club committees pending the litigation.
Not voluntarily at first.
The interim board asked.
She complied.
Then she called me.
“Did you have to humiliate me at my wedding?”
I nearly laughed.
“You told me to leave with my daughter.”
“You bought the club secretly.”
“Before you told me to leave.”
“You knew what it meant to me.”
“Did you know what that chair meant to Amelia?”
Silence.
Then:
“She is eight.”
“Yes.”
“That’s my point.”
“No.”
I leaned forward even though she could not see me.
“That is mine.”
Then Claudia said:
“You have no idea what it was like being Celeste’s sister.”
There.
Not the wedding.
Not the club.
The real wound.
Celeste had been older.
More admired.
More independent.
Vera fought with her constantly and still centered her constantly.
When Celeste married me, every family event became about whether she attended.
When she became ill, everything became about her.
When she died, the grief became a permanent altar.
Claudia felt like the daughter who stayed and was never enough to become the one everyone watched.
Then Amelia inherited Celeste’s place emotionally.
Claudia said:
“Even dead, she still gets the better chair.”
I was silent.
Because for the first time, I understood something.
Claudia did not merely want money.
She wanted a role that could not be compared with Celeste.
Belladonna was that role.
Vera promised it.
Then Amelia’s trust interest became another shadow.
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Explanation.
Not excuse.
