eye. I would never be able to understand the need for throwing a banquet to welcome a nobody back home.
But since I had returned for good, I couldn’t pick a fight and not be haunted by it for weeks because my mom actually could keep a grudge for that long. I always had London to escape back to when my holidays came to an end. But for now, I needed to keep the peace as much as I could.
If I let my mother have her way for now, it wouldn’t count as a strike against me in the future. I had a list of difficult requests I wanted granted later. Things she wouldn’t like. Things she didn’t consider women should be doing.
Chapter 4
Sienna
The party was held in the foyer, an expansive glistening area that could have passed for a mini ballroom. Exquisite marble columns, black and white granite floor, crystal chandeliers, and the grand piano by one corner, made the area a perfect hosting space.
When we reached the top of the stairs, I looked down and the base of the dramatically sweeping staircase was filled with elegantly dressed, chatting people holding flutes of champagne.
Families and friends, I was told they were, although I couldn’t pick out a single familiar face. I had been away too long. First boarding school, then college. It had been my father’s way of protecting me and keeping me out of the way. Once he realized my mother could bear no more children, I became precious to him. I was just about to descend one side of the dramatic winding staircase, when I realized my mother had halted at the top.
“Aren’t you coming?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Go ahead. I want you to make an entrance. All of the spotlight needs to solely be on you.”
It took all of the restraint I had not to roll my eyes at her or argue with her. This was exactly the kind of thing I hated. I was no society belle and this kind of attention would probably just make me trip and fall. But the window for protesting had closed as some of the guests had already began to notice me. I let out a sigh of resignation, and with my head held high, I began my careful descent. The prospect of falling and breaking my bones seemed very real.
“Sienna! Darling!” a high shrill voice called.
More people stopped their conversation as heads and eyes turned towards me.
I felt like an animal in a cage. There wasn’t anything less necessary in the world than this. My preference would have been to take the elevator on the other side of the house and unobtrusively join the crowd.
The stairs seemed to go on forever, but finally I conquered the last step and felt the solidity of the black and white floor.
Bright, smiling faces closed around me.
I smiled back nervously as compliments and well wishes were showered on me.
“You look gorgeous!”
“Beautiful!”
“Welcome home, darling!”
“How proud your parents must be.”
Of course, I didn’t voice my feelings, but the extravagance and lavishness of their compliments repelled and horrified me. Was this how it would be from now on? I had thoroughly enjoyed my humble, anonymous existence in England and longed to have it back. More compliments were showered on me. I knew they weren’t real. They were just paying homage to my father’s power and money.
“You look so beautiful!”
“Welcome back, sweetie. You look amazing.”
“You’re not going to say hello to your Aunt Aldina?”
This particular Aunt I immediately recognized and I turned blindly towards her. I was pulled into a fleshy bear hug as her strong perfume of jasmine and spices filled my nostrils. Before I could recover, I was pulled away by another family member. Someone introduced me to cousins I hadn’t seen in years. “Remember when you guys used to play naked in the pool.”
I smiled.
They smiled, but we were all strangers to each other now.
“Next on the agenda is a grand wedding for Sienna,” a woman’s voice boomed.
I died a little inside, but outwardly, my smile didn’t fade.
A waitress dressed in black with a frilly white apron came around with a silver tray full of champagne flutes.
I grabbed one and downed more than half the glass in one gulp. What an incredibly long night I had ahead of me.
A barrage of intrusive questions began. I should explain … Italians have no sense of personal space or privacy. I looked around for my mother to rescue me, but she seemed to have disappeared.