“What am I to you, Gerald?”

“A charity case,” he rasped.

“A failure who had to beg for an invitation because she has nowhere else to go.”

“Clare asked me to come,” I said.

“Clare does what I tell her to do,” Gerald said.

“I paid for the hall, I paid for the food, and I control the Ulette name in this town.”

“The venue is taken care of,” I said.

“I paid forty thousand dollars for that room,” Gerald shouted.