Nobody had noticed I’d left.
Nobody had asked where I was.
“How much is still outstanding?” I asked.
Daniel checked his tablet.
“With the additional guests, champagne upgrades, seafood station, and service charges, the remaining balance is fourteen thousand three hundred eighty dollars.”
I swallowed.
It was an enormous amount.
Nearly everything I’d planned to save that year.
“Can I leave a note with the bill?”
“Of course.”
He gave me a cream-colored restaurant notecard and a pen.
I stood in the hallway trying to find the right words.
My first attempt sounded furious.
So did the second.
The third sounded bitter.
I tore them up.
Then I wrote something simpler.
Something true.
When I finished, I folded the card and handed it to Daniel.
“Please give this to my mother with the final bill.”
He accepted it without reading.
Then I looked directly at him.
“Please remove my card.”
