They invited her to a lavish baby shower, left her without a chair, and sent her to a pub with a cruel “that place is for you,” but no one imagined how she would end up humiliating the entire family.

Desmond listened to every word without interrupting me until I had finally run out of things to say about my mother’s definition of success. He asked if I trusted him to handle the situation, and I realized that I had trusted him since the day he first walked into my shop looking for rare poetry.

I told him that I did trust him, so he immediately picked up his phone and made a quick call to a woman named June. He placed a glass of water in front of me and changed the subject to rare first editions to help me calm my nerves while we waited.

Twenty minutes later, June had arrived to fix my hair and makeup before dressing me in a stunning emerald silk dress that felt like a suit of armor. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a woman who looked powerful and sophisticated rather than the daughter my family tried to hide away.

Desmond then led me to a private dining room in the back of the pub that was filled with candlelight and white linen. Right in the center of the beautiful table sat a single card that simply had my name printed on it in elegant gold script.

I asked him who else would be joining us for this unexpected dinner while looking at the extra settings on the table. Desmond opened a leather folder and listed off names like Theresa Vance, Keegan Thorne, and Simone Hadley, who were the most influential literary consultants in the country.

“We have been trying to reach you for months about a partnership, but your mother always told us you were too busy to take our calls,” Theresa said as she walked in. In less than an hour, I was looking at a proposal for a new flagship store and a contract to curate a massive private library for a foundation.

While my chair remained empty across the street, I was signing deals that would change my career and my life forever. Suddenly, there was a loud commotion near the entrance of our private room as my mother and Whitney burst through the doors.

They were both soaked from the rain and looked absolutely furious as they stared at the group of influential people sitting at my table. Whitney hissed that I was making them look ridiculous and asked what I thought I was doing by hosting a rival event.