A Palm Beach Scandal--A Novel by Susannah Marren

Author:Susannah Marren
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Publishing Group

* * *

The sun sets a fiery orange more to the west than usual for late January. The entire guest list congregates by the starboard bow on the second deck. Rory and Max Langley stand behind their daughter, while Pamela and Robert Groton are behind their son. Although there isn’t a woman on board over fifty who hasn’t had her face improved or a total redo, both Rory and Pamela are newly minted. They are chiseled—maybe that is why neither woman is smiling. The affianced are far from each other and I realize I’ve not seen them together the entire night—not on the dance floor, not to mingle, not to party.

Robert Groton steps forward. “Everyone, welcome. Welcome to the Turquoise Go. My wife, Pamela, and I are delighted to host you.” He clears his throat. “Each of you has been invited to celebrate the engagement of Tabatha and Seth. Their union, their marriage, their hopes for a future together. What should be a very celebratory occasion.”

People begin to shift their weight, cough, glance at one another. They wait for Robert Groton’s pause to end.

“However, it isn’t a celebration. Until the final hour, we believed—that is, Seth, Pamela, and I believed—that Tabatha would sign documents on behalf of herself and Seth, my son.”

Gulps from the guests. Mumbling, a muffled epicenter. The men drink up; the ice in their refills clinks. They tap their Gucci loafers against wood flooring. The women are confused, forlorn. Robert Groton waves his hand.

“Please let me go on, let me explain.” He sighs. “We, both sets of parents, had high hopes for this couple. Love, privilege. A future. But Tabatha and her lawyers, if not her father, maybe her parents, cannot come to an agreement. They cannot come to terms that work for the marriage to go forward.”

Rory Langley steps up. In the starlight her face is refined, incredibly honed. Her hair has that keratin sheen. Tabatha, actually all three daughters, look like her. She smiles regretfully, winces. “My daughter isn’t comfortable with what is being asked of her. That’s what has occurred. To put it plainly, Tabatha won’t sign the prenup.”

“There won’t be a wedding.” Robert Groton obscures Rory. “Tonight is a party on a boat. Nothing more.”

Tabatha, without turning away, begins to cry, heaving, bereft, and Seth leaves his parents to console her. His mother stops him. “Seth, no, no. Not now, not again.” Seth is constrained by his mother while Tabatha looks out over the guests, weeping.

“Please, please, everyone, have more to eat, to drink,” Robert Groton says. “The evening is young.”

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