The gala did what I had hoped it would do, which was to make the story public without making me a spectacle.
By Monday, two people had called Susan Reyes to ask if the story was true. By Tuesday, a woman from the hospital board had called the foundation to ask about the contract transfer. By Wednesday, Marsha Mercer had canceled a scheduled appearance at a luncheon, citing a scheduling conflict, and the Ledger had run a short item in the business section about the foundation's "reorganization."
None of it was a scandal. But it was a c***k, and cracks in a foundation were like cracks in a dam.
I spent that week doing something I had never done before. I asked for help.
I called every vendor who had worked on the wedding, and I asked them for copies of the contracts, the emails, the invo
