“You do not need to become hard in order to become effective. The world will try to teach you otherwise. Ignore it. Strength without vanity is rarer than talent, and you possess it. The board knows more than Ethan thinks. Two members are waiting for your call. One is spineless but useful. The CFO will test you. Let him. Then replace him if he blinks.”
I pause the video and stare.
It is surreal, receiving executive coaching from my dead mother-in-law on the same day my husband’s affair detonated in public. Yet beneath the surrealism is something steadying. Margaret is not asking whether I am hurt. She assumes I am hurt. She is asking what I will do while hurt.
So I keep watching.
At the end of the recording she says, “One last thing. Do not punish the child for the sins of his parents. But do not let the parents use the child as a key. Sentiment is the preferred crowbar of selfish people.”
The screen goes black.
I sit in silence until dusk begins to stain the windows purple.
Then my phone starts ringing.
First Ethan.
I do not answer.
Then Ethan again.
Then an unknown number I correctly guess is Lauren.