CHAPTER 10: Adelaide Runs Out of Manners

Adelaide's voice sharpened once her manners stopped helping.
'This is absurd. A child was corrected. Maren is using you to humiliate me because she has never fit in this family.'
The word fit seemed to embarrass even the people who had enjoyed it in quieter conversations.
Victor looked at Adelaide for the first time as if she were no longer a guest, but a problem being defined.
'You poured food on a seven-year-old in front of witnesses.'
'It was an accident.'
The security director stepped forward with a tablet held flat against his palm.
'The room cameras show three angles,' he said. 'The plate was tilted deliberately after Mrs. Whitcomb looked toward the press line.'
Adelaide's face lost color beneath the chandelier light.
Julian closed his eyes once.
Maren felt no triumph. Only a tired sadness that proof had been necessary for the room to believe what Clara's tears had already said.
Adelaide looked from the tablet to Victor, then to Maren.
For once, she had no polite cruelty left.