several business magazines during the past year. The Charlotte Observer had run a feature article on him. "I won't pretend to understand," Kathryn said, looking at the rusted hulk of the trailer, "but everybody knows who you are now."
"But they don't accept me. I went to their schools and played touch football with them. I have the money, but I don't have the pedigree. I don't have the family history."
Kathryn remembered how her friends made comments about people with less money, looks and sophistication. There had always been an unspoken barrier that separated them, that constantly reminded them they weren't good enough. She'd never really stopped to think how that must have made them feel. Rather than discriminate against them, she should have admired them for having the courage to tackle and overcome obstacles she didn't have to face. "Not all our families have a history I'd want."
"It doesn't have to be good. It just has to be well-known. Well, Cynthia's going to have a history, even if it's short."
"Maybe she doesn't want the same things you want."
"Maybe not, but she doesn't want to be a nobody."
She felt sorry for him. His parents had died without giving him the love and acceptance he needed. His wife had died before he was much more than another Harvard MBA struggling to make a place for himself in the business world. Cynthia was too young to appreciate her father's accomplishments. He had turned to the public to give him the feeling of acceptance and approval he couldn't get anywhere else.
Her life hadn't been perfect, but at least she had a family that loved her. Still, as much as she sympathized with Ron, she couldn't lose sight of the fact her first concern was Cynthia. Ron was tough. He'd proved he could take care of himself. Cynthia had proved she couldn't.
"Let's go," Ron said. "We're conspicuous."
Like a three-hundred-thousand-dollar car in a squalid trailer park wouldn't be! He pulled to a stop at a boardwalk behind the fish camp that overlooked the lake. They got out. The breeze coming off the lake was refreshingly cool. It smelled of crisp water and honeysuckle.
"I used to watch the boats," Ron said. "I'd try to imagine what it would be like to roar across the lake in one of those big boats without caring that my wake might capsize some little boat."
"I always hated people who did that. Did you ever buy a boat?"
"Lake Norman is the place to be now. It wasn't the same."
Her father had bought a house at Lake Norman. He said Lake Wylie was for the middle class. "Did you do the other things you dreamed you'd do when you were finally successful?"
"I bought a house in the best neighborhood and sent my daughter to the best school in town. She has the best of everything."
"What if she considers you the best of everything?"
"Cynthia knows I have to work, or we won't have the money for all those things."
"Maybe she doesn't want them."
"She would if she didn't have them."
"Maybe not so much."
"Look, I can't go to a company and say I'll only do seventy-six thousand dollars worth of work because I need only seventy-six thousand dollars this year. They'd think I was a fool and hire someone else. I have to charge top dollar, or they won't think I'm good enough to hire."
"Even if it's a million dollars?"
"You're talking companies worth thirty, fifty, a hundred billion dollars. A million is pocket change to them. More than the cost, what's important is the quality of the service, the expert personal attention to every detail. I have an office of fifteen full-time staff. That can double or triple depending on the job. Then there are bonuses and percentages. I have to get paid well. A lot of people depend on me."
"That doesn't change the fact that nothing can replace you in your daughter's life."
"Who do you think I'm doing all this for?"
He wasn't getting the point. "Maybe you've reached the point where your success has isolated you from Cynthia."
"I know it's kept us apart more than I want, but I have to go where the work takes me."
Now he was making excuses for doing what he wanted to do. She wouldn't let him get away with that. "Every decision is yours to make one way or the other. Everything is a choice. Some of the choices you've made have hurt Cynthia."
"I can't help that."
"Of course you can. It doesn't matter that some decisions don't work out