As the students left, she felt her anger drain. In its place came shame and embarrassment. She dropped the broken bottle to the floor and reached for her purse. It had only taken a little bit of goading for the girls in her class to make her crack like that.

Sophia rushed over and grabbed her arm, "Are you okay, Cathy?"

​​

"I'm fine," Catherine sighed. "But I think those girls owe me an apology."

Sophia hesitated, "They do, but now might not be the best time to get it."

"No, I want an apology," she insisted. "I came here to try to make amends and to end things on a good note, but they attacked me."

"That seems fair," Sophia sighed. She raised her voice slightly, "Why don't you apologize and makeup, girls?"

"I'm sorry," the mousy haired girl said.

"I'm sorry," mumbled a few others.

"Oh, come on, this is pathetic," Madison snapped. "You're all going to apologize to the school bully now? If anything, she owes an apology to you."

"I hate to admit it, but she has a point," Sophia said.

"Fine," Catherine sighed. "I'm sorry for bullying you guys. Very few of you deserved it—and the ones who most deserved it were the ones pretending to be my friends." She turned to glare at Madison and her best friends.

"This is ridiculous," Madison said. "I'm not apologizing to her for anything. She got her feelings hurt just because I mentioned that her husband is older than her. Well, it's the truth. If she can't handle that, maybe she shouldn't have married him."

"Leave him out of this," Catherine snapped.

"Come on, Madison," a girl shouted. "Set her straight! Put her in her place!"

"Listen, I accept the apologies from everyone who was sincere, and I hope you can accept mine as well," she said. "As I said, I came here to end things on a good note, but it's clear that's not going to happen. I hope you all enjoy it and have a nice life. I'll be leaving now."

***

Catherine stalked toward the bar and passed her credit card to the calm bartender. She waited impatiently as the woman swiped the card then rushed out of the bar into the fresh air of the street outside. She was surprised to see that the sun had already started to set. She hadn't realized she'd spent so much time inside. She stood on the sidewalk and wondered which direction to go. She wasn't ready to go back to the estate, but she didn't want to go back to the bar either.

"Catherine, wait," Sophia called.

She turned and saw her friend rushing out.

"I'm so sorry that happened," Sophia said. "I shouldn't have asked you to come. I just thought things would be different—it was probably silly to believe that, though."

"Just optimistic," Catherine said with a smile. "I should have known better too."

"They're just jealous of you," Sophia said.

"Madison and her friends are," Catherine said sadly. "But the rest have every reason to hate me. I was horrible to them."

"Honestly, most of them are very petty people," Sophia said. "As I was leaving, they had already moved on to mocking the next girl. They just like to tear each other down to feel better."

"Yeah," Catherine sighed. "I shouldn't have let them get to me."

"Forget it," Sophia said.

"Anyway," she said. "I was serious about what I said before. I want to help Linda get away—I want to help you both get away from him."

"I know," Sophia said. "But the more I think about it, the more impossible it seems. Even if she wasn't totally under my dad's spell, she's pretty Catholic. I don't think she believes in divorce—not really."

"Do you want me to go with you?" Catherine offered. "I could try to help convince her."

Sophia shook her head and sighed, "I don't think that would help. She'd probably just blame you for putting weird ideas in my head. Or she'd argue it's a family matter and get mad at me for dragging you into it."

"Okay," Catherine said. "I'll get my lawyer ready, and then whenever you convince her, just tell me, and he'll get it all sorted out before she even has time to change her mind."

"Is Sean already on his way to get you?" Sophia asked.

"No," Catherine answered. "Why?"

"Well, would you want to go for a walk with me?" Sophia asked. "We can window shop up on the high street like in the old days and just talk."

"Sure," Catherine said, smiling slightly. "I wasn't ready to head home anyway."

As they walked, Catherine tapped out a message to Sean, telling him to have dinner without her. Almost as soon as she'd sent the message, her phone began to buzz. She sighed when she saw Sean's name.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Near the school," she answered. "My classmates went to a local pub to celebrate."

"Are you drinking?" he asked.

She gripped her phone, fighting the urge to yell at him. His tone was so paternal and possessive—he sounded just like the old man the girls had made fun of her for marrying.

"No," she sighed.

"You're still at the party?" he asked again.

"No," she said. "Sophia and I left. We're going to go shop up on the high street, okay?"

"Well, call me when you're done, and I can pick you up," he said, relieved in his voice.

"I can take a cab," she said.

"Call me when you're done," he repeated.

The line went dead, and she sighed.

"Is everything okay?" Sophia asked.

"I guess," Catherine sighed. "I think Sean is kind of jealous of the guys from our school, though. He seemed relieved when I told him I was with you."

"That's normal, I guess," Sophia said thoughtfully. "But be careful it doesn't turn into anything more than that, you know? I think that's how it started with my dad, you know. He'd get jealous, and then he'd get violent."

"Yeah," she sighed. "I know."

They made their way to the high street, walking slowly in the cooling evening. The heat of the day still rose up from the pavement, but there was a slow breeze in the air. The final evening rush of customers was entering the shops, swarming on the sidewalks with armfuls of bags filled with tissue paper and clothing. Black cabs swerved through traffic, gliding up to the curbs for passengers to enter and exit. The street felt cheerful and alive.