Chapter 2 - THE FIRST CRACK
By six-thirty, the Callaway estate was full.
Luxury cars lined the circular driveway.
Politicians arrived beside developers.
Bank executives shook hands with venture capitalists.
Every important person in Tennessee's business world seemed to know Andre Callaway.
But almost everyone knew Lorraine better.
She moved through the ballroom like royalty.
Camille stood beside Andre.
“You look beautiful,” he whispered.
“So do you.”
“I look terrified.”
“That too.”
He smiled.
For one brief moment, they looked like an ordinary married couple.
Then Lorraine approached.
“Camille.”
“Yes?”
“Come with me.”
Andre stepped forward.
“Why?”
Lorraine gave him a cold look.
“Because I'm speaking to my daughter-in-law.”
Camille touched Andre's arm.
“It's okay.”
She followed Lorraine into the corridor.
The older woman closed the door behind them.
“You found the accounts.”
Camille's heart didn't move.
“You know what I'm talking about?”
“I know exactly what you're talking about.”
Lorraine opened her purse and removed a photograph.
She placed it on the table.
Camille stared.
It was a photograph of her standing outside a warehouse.
A warehouse belonging to the company she had sold.
Lorraine smiled.
“You weren't exactly the simple little woman Andre thought you were.”
Camille looked up.
“How did you get this?”
“I have people.”
“You've been investigating me.”
“I investigate everyone who enters my family.”
“Then you already know the company wasn't illegal.”
“Oh, I know.”
Lorraine leaned closer.
“I also know you sold it for nearly four hundred million dollars.”
Camille said nothing.
“Andre doesn't know.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because it wasn't his business.”
Lorraine's expression changed.
“You think money makes you powerful.”
“No.”
Camille picked up the photograph.
“I think information does.”
Lorraine narrowed her eyes.
“Are you threatening me?”
“I'm warning you.”
The older woman laughed.
“You're still pretending to be innocent.”
“No.”
Camille placed the photograph down.
“I'm simply finished pretending to be powerless.”
Lorraine's face hardened.
“You will regret marrying my son.”
Camille opened the door.
“Maybe.”
Then she paused.
“But you may regret what you do next much more.”
When she returned to the ballroom, Andre immediately noticed something had changed.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“That wasn't nothing.”
Before Camille could answer, the lights dimmed.
The band stopped.
Lorraine stepped onto the stage.
She lifted a champagne glass.
“To my son.”
Applause erupted.
Andre smiled.
Camille watched Lorraine.
Something was wrong.
Lorraine continued.
“And to the woman who has stood beside him.”
The room quieted.
Camille felt hundreds of eyes turn toward her.
Lorraine raised her glass.
“Unfortunately, not every woman deserves the place she has been given.”
A murmur moved through the ballroom.
Andre stood.
“Mother.”
Lorraine smiled.
“Sit down, Andre.”
He didn't.
Lorraine reached beneath the podium.
She pulled out a document.
“This evening, everyone will finally learn who Camille Callaway really is.”
Camille's stomach dropped.
The screen behind Lorraine illuminated.
A photograph appeared.
Then another.
Then a newspaper clipping.
Andre turned toward Camille.
“You knew this was coming?”
“No.”
The next image appeared.
It showed Camille standing beside the warehouse.
Across the bottom were the words:
CAMERON LOGISTICS SOLD FOR $397 MILLION.
Gasps filled the ballroom.
Andre stared at Camille.
“You sold a company?”
Camille swallowed.
“Yes.”
Lorraine smiled.
“And she married my son without telling him she was already worth hundreds of millions.”
Silence.
Then someone whispered:
“She married into the family for more money?”
Camille looked at Andre.
His face was unreadable.
Lorraine raised her glass.
May you like
“Happy birthday, darling.”
And for the first time that evening, Camille wondered whether the woman she loved had finally become the man his mother had always wanted him to be.
