They Left Me Out Of The Picture So I Created My Own Chapter 23
Three days before the opening, my father and Lauren showed up at the gallery.
They hadn’t called ahead.
My father was in a suit, carrying a document envelope. Lauren removed her sunglasses, and the first thing she looked at wasn’t me, but the exhibition labels on the wall.
“We need to talk,” my father said.
“I have an installation meeting in half an hour.”
“This won’t take that long.”
He set the envelope on a table and pulled out a printed page.
“I’ve already contacted our financial advisor. I can change the 529 account back into your name.”
The paper was just an application form, not yet fully signed.
Nothing like the completed confirmation letter he’d received before.
I didn’t reach for it.
“What’s the condition?”
My father’s face tightened.
“What condition? I’m correcting a mistake.”
Lauren cut in. “We give the account back, you take down that last room in the gallery. Everybody gets to keep a little dignity. That seems more than reasonable.”
I looked at my father.
“This is your correction?”
“Lauren’s just upset,” he said, avoiding my eyes. “The exhibition is going to get media coverage. Owen is still young, and Sadie is just starting her life. You can’t destroy the whole family just because we didn’t do enough for you in the past.”
“How does a card, a note, and a confirmation letter destroy a family?”
“You know exactly how people will interpret it!”
His voice finally rose, echoing in the empty gallery.
Several staff members who were moving display structures nearby stopped and glanced over.
Realizing they were being watched, my father lowered his voice again.
“Avery, I admit we overlooked you. But what family doesn’t make mistakes? You’re so successful now. Why are you still clinging to the past?”
“Because just yesterday, you were still using that same past to prove what a good father you are.”
I opened my phone and held his Facebook post out for him to see.
“If the past doesn’t matter, then why did you crop the words off the card?”
My father’s lips moved, but no sound came out.
Lauren reached for my phone.
I stepped back and turned off the screen.
“This isn’t a negotiation.”
“Do you need us to apologize in public before you’ll be satisfied?” she demanded.
“I didn’t ask you to come here. And I didn’t ask for an apology.”
I pushed the unfinished beneficiary-change form back toward them.
“You should leave the gallery.”
My father didn’t move.
“What about the account?”
“When Mom opened it, I was the beneficiary. You changed it to Sadie. That was your choice. Whether you correct that mistake now is your choice, too.”
I looked him straight in the eye.
“Stop asking me to do the right thing for you.”
At that moment, the projection on the wall behind him lit up.
The words *FAMILY OF FOUR* slowly emerged in red.
Lauren glanced back once, and her face went dark.
She grabbed her bag and walked toward the door.
My father slowly put the papers away. He looked suddenly years older.
“You weren’t like this when you were little.”
“I’ve always been like this.”
I picked up my installation checklist.
“The only difference is that back then, I was still waiting for your signature.”
He didn’t say another word.
After the glass door clicked shut behind them, Professor Dunn stepped out from an adjacent room.
“Your meeting starts in twenty-seven minutes.”
I checked the time.
“That’s enough.”
I climbed back up the ladder and adjusted the final spotlight until it was perfectly straight.