Olivia nodded, as if getting exactly the answer she expected. «Good then. Think.
And while you’re thinking, you can pack your things and stay with Mom. I need space.» Margaret Wilson gasped in indignation.
«What? You should move out! Ethan rents the apartment!» «The lease is in my name,» Olivia parried calmly. «And we pay half each. So I have the right to decide who stays.»
Ethan looked bewildered, as if seeing his wife for the first time. This confident, decisive woman was starkly different from the one who usually yielded in all arguments with his mother. «Olivia, maybe we should talk privately?» he suggested.
«No,» she shook her head. «I think we’ve said everything to each other. Or rather, it was said for us.»
She looked expressively at Margaret Wilson. She lunged forward, but Ethan held her. «Mom, calm down, your heart.»
«Let go!» she yanked her arm. «This… this girl dares speak to me like that! Ethan, if you’re a man, put her in place!» Guests, silently watching the drama until now, began whispering quietly. Sophia approached Olivia and quietly asked.
«Need help? Maybe call a cab or…» «It’s okay.» Olivia gratefully squeezed her friend’s hand. This had to happen sooner or later.
Margaret Wilson, realizing she was losing control, went into a final attack. «Ethan, we’re leaving! Now! And you file for divorce tomorrow! I won’t allow my son to be humiliated!» Ethan stood, shifting gaze from mother to wife. At that moment, he looked especially pathetic, a confused man unable to make his own choice.
«I…» he started, but Margaret Wilson interrupted. «No ‘I’! We’re leaving!» She grabbed her son’s hand and pulled him to the exit. Ethan threw a last glance at Olivia.
In it was embarrassment, fear, maybe even regret, but he let his mother lead him away. When the door closed behind them, a heavy silence hung in the hall. Thirty people had just witnessed a family’s collapse.
Olivia stood in the middle of the hall, feeling all the gazes on her—sympathetic, curious, embarrassed. Linda Carter approached her daughter and quietly asked. «Are you okay?» Olivia took a deep breath.
«No, but I will be.» She turned to the guests and unexpectedly smiled for herself. A bit forced, but sincere.
«Sorry for this spectacle. Not how I imagined my birthday.» «Olivia, we can leave if you want,» one friend suggested.
«You probably want to be alone?» «No,» Olivia replied resolutely. «I spent three months planning this evening. I won’t let Margaret Wilson steal my party too.»
She approached the musicians and asked them to continue playing. Then turned to the host. «Alex, please, let’s continue the program.
We haven’t cut the cake yet.» The host, professionally hiding surprise, nodded. «Of course, Olivia! Ladies and gentlemen, now the sweetest moment of our evening.»
Waiters, getting the signal, brought out a large cake with lit candles. Musicians played «Happy Birthday.» Guests, a bit hesitantly but then more confidently, began singing along.
Olivia stood before the cake, looking at the candle flames. In their flickering light reflected everything that happened in these two years. Hopes, disappointments, pain, humiliations.
And now the climax. «Make a wish,» Linda Carter said quietly, standing beside. Olivia closed her eyes.
What could she wish? For Ethan to return? For everything to magically fix? For Margaret Wilson to disappear from their lives? No. That wasn’t it. She opened her eyes and inhaled deeply.
Then blew out the candles in one resolute breath. Guests applauded. «What did you wish?» Sophia asked as waiters began cutting the cake.
Olivia smiled, this time genuinely. «Freedom. I wished for freedom.»
Gradually, the atmosphere in the hall began to thaw. People returned to tables, spoke quieter than usual, but without the tense silence that reigned after Ethan and his mother’s departure. Olivia went around guests, thanked them for coming, accepted belated congratulations.
She did everything mechanically, as if watching herself from outside. Part of her was still in shock from what happened, but another part, the one that suppressed her true feelings for years, finally breathed freely. Linda Carter sat quietly at the table, watching her daughter.
When Olivia returned to her, she silently took her hand. «Mom,» Olivia said quietly, «you shouldn’t have…» «I had to,» Linda Carter interrupted softly. «I was silent too long, watching you wither in this marriage.
But now everyone knows…» «And what?» Linda Carter shrugged. «Truth is better than lies, honey. Always.»
Olivia looked closely at her mother, at this simple woman who worked hard all her life to give her daughter an education, who never complained even when it was tough, who stoically endured contempt from people like Margaret Wilson. «You’re amazing,» Olivia said quietly, «I’ve never seen you so… decisive.» Linda Carter smiled softly.
«It was just time. I couldn’t watch anymore as that woman humiliated you. Especially when she used my profession as a weapon against you.»
«You’re not ashamed of your job, right?» Olivia suddenly asked. «Never,» Linda Carter replied firmly. «I’ve always been proud that with my own hands I provided you a decent life.
Even if I mopped floors, you got higher education, found good work. That’s my main victory.» Olivia hugged her mother tightly, feeling tears well up.
«Thanks for everything.» The party continued for about another hour. Guests gradually left, warmly saying goodbye to Olivia.
In their eyes, she saw sympathy, but also respect. She didn’t break, didn’t run away in tears, but kept her dignity. When the last guest left, Olivia remained in the empty hall with her mother.
Waiters cleared dishes, musicians packed instruments. «Come to my place,» Linda Carter suggested. «I don’t want you alone tonight.»
Olivia shook her head. «No, Mom. I’ll go home.
I need to think a lot.» «Sure?» Linda Carter asked worriedly. «What if Ethan returns?» «He won’t,» Olivia replied confidently.
«At least not today. He’s consoling mommy now and hearing what an ungrateful I am.» Linda Carter sighed.
«Anyway. Call me when you get there. Anytime.»
Olivia agreed, hugged her mother goodbye, and called a cab. Sitting in the back seat, looking at the night streets flashing by the window, she suddenly realized that today a new stage in her life truly began. And not as she planned, but perhaps exactly as needed.
The driver, an elderly man with kind eyes, looked at her in the rearview mirror. «Celebrating something? You’re dressed so beautifully.» Olivia met his eyes in the mirror and smiled.
«Yes. Today I’m celebrating my liberation.» He didn’t ask further, just nodded, as if understanding everything.
Olivia leaned back in the seat, looking at the starry sky through the cab window, and for the first time in a long while felt she could breathe fully. The cab stopped at the entrance exactly at midnight. Olivia paid the driver and slowly climbed the steps.
The party shoes, comfortable in the morning, now pinched mercilessly, and the beautiful dress became cold in the cool night air. She took out keys and froze before her apartment door, realizing she didn’t know what awaited inside. Had Ethan returned? Packed his things? Or maybe he and Margaret Wilson decided to ambush and continue the scandal at home? Taking a deep breath, Olivia unlocked the door.
The apartment was dark and quiet. She flipped the switch and looked around. Everything looked just as she left it in the afternoon…
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