The Billionaire's Regret Came Too Late

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My parents were having dinner at Merlin Delgado's place when his female assistant, carrying a bowl of soup, lost her grip and dumped the whole thing over my mother.

Mom shrieked and shot to her feet.

When Dad reached for napkins, the assistant accidentally stepped on his toes.

Merlin didn't move from the head of the table.

"So careless of you."

Then the assistant's eyes went red.

"Sir... ma'am, I'm so sorry."

And at that, he handed her a napkin.

Mom's blouse was plastered to her skin, Dad limping as he steadied her, the two of them standing at that long European table looking completely out of place.

I set down my chopsticks, something cold settling in my chest, and went over to take my mother's hand.

"We're leaving."

Merlin froze for a second.

"What are you doing?"

I turned back to look at him.

"Your assistant soaks my mother and you do nothing, she steps on my father and you do nothing, she squeezes out two tears and suddenly you're handing her a napkin."

"Merlin, tonight I finally saw it clearly. Who counts and who doesn't, in your eyes."

Dad's lips moved. It was Mom who gripped my hand tight.

In the elevator Mom held back her tears and asked me.

"Dot, did I... did I embarrass you?"

I shook my head.

"No. I was the one who was blind these two years."

The night we walked out of his complex, I blocked him.

Later he cornered me outside my office building, eyes red, asking me why.

I looked at him and said,

"She dared do it because you let her."

"You didn't get up that night because to you it was nothing."

"Merlin, in all the things that mean nothing to you, my parents happened to be included."

......

The elevator doors slid shut, cutting off what Merlin shouted from the other side.

"Get back here!"

The tears came down her cheeks. Mom couldn't hold them anymore.

Her voice shook as she clutched the soaked hem of her blouse.

"It's just one blouse, a quick wash... a wash and it's fine. Why fall out with Merlin over this?"

Beside her, Dad held her up, a faint sweat on his forehead, his toes still throbbing.

He sighed.

"She's right. Merlin's got a demanding job... a lot of pressure. He didn't mean it."

I looked at the three of us reflected in the elevator wall.

The whole sorry, ridiculous sight.

I reached over and wiped my mother's tears away.

"Mom, you're not the one who embarrassed anybody. I am."

"Bringing you and Dad to a place like that to be treated like this, that was me being blind."

The elevator dinged at the ground floor.

I helped them out. The night wind hit us, and Mom shivered from the cold.

I took off my own coat and draped it over her shoulders.

"I'll take you home."

The car was quiet on the way back.

My parents sat in the back the whole ride, saying nothing.

I knew what they were thinking.

Good-looking, good career, good family, that was Merlin.

I was the one marrying up, in my parents' eyes.

So when they got hurt, their first reaction wasn't anger. It was fear of causing me trouble.

My phone buzzed wildly in my pocket.

I didn't need to look to know it was Merlin.

I didn't answer.

I dropped them at their building, Dad still limping as he got out of the car.

He looked back at me, his lips moving.

"Dot, don't... don't do anything rash."

I nodded.

"I know, Dad."

I watched them go up before I turned the car around.

The phone had gone quiet. Halfway home,

a text came in.

"Dorothy Dickerson, are you done making a scene?"

I pulled over to the curb and sent back two words.

"We're done."

Then I opened my contacts, found his name, and blocked it.

Blocked him everywhere else too.

Cut off every way we had left to reach each other.

When it was all done, I started the car and drove straight to the apartment where we'd lived together.

I spent two hours packing up everything that was mine.

Clothes, books, makeup, and the pothos plant I'd been keeping.

Last, I set the key on the cabinet by the entryway.

Next to it was the first gift he'd ever given me, a crystal swan.

I looked at that crystal, and nothing stirred in me. I just let go.

It hit the cold marble floor and shattered completely.

I called a moving van and dragged my two suitcases downstairs.

"Riverside Avenue, please."

That was the place I rented on my own. I'd never given it up, just in case.

Never thought I'd be using it this soon.

The phone rang again, an unknown number.

I answered.

"Dorothy, what is this supposed to mean?"

Merlin's voice, thick with barely held anger.

"The key's on the table, all my things are gone. We're through."

My tone was calm.

"Over one bowl of soup? Over... over one blouse?"

He seemed to find it unbelievable.

"Merlin, that wasn't a bowl of soup. That was my mother."

"And it wasn't just a blouse. That was my father's foot."

"They mattered less to you than your assistant's two tears."

The line went silent.

I didn't want to hear another word of his excuses.

"Let's just leave it there."

I was about to hang up.

"Dorothy."

He stopped me.

"You think you've caught me in the wrong, so now you can walk away with your head high, is that it?"

I stalled.

"You've wanted out for a long time, haven't you, just waiting for a chance like this?"

His voice turned cold.

"That business with your parents is nothing but an excuse you've been planning all along."

I laughed, furious.

"Merlin, you're really something."

"That's the kind of person I am, in your mind?"

"Isn't it?"

He threw it back at me.

I hung up and blocked that number too.

The city lights slid past the window one by one.

And it hit me all at once how absurd these two years had been.