CHAPTER 10: When the Guests Remembered Fear

The guests had come to witness a future wedding. They found themselves inside a trial without a judge.
A senator's wife set down her champagne. A hotel investor stopped smiling. Vivienne's friends gathered near the staircase, suddenly fascinated by the flowers, the floor, anything except the woman whose power they had borrowed all season.
Sebastian did not threaten anyone.
He did not need to.
His family name was old enough to make threats feel unnecessary and dangerous enough to make silence sound wise.
'No one leaves yet,' he said.
The doors remained open, but nobody moved toward them.
Vivienne's face changed when she understood. The room that had admired her dress now counted its distance from her.
Sebastian turned to the staff lined near the service corridor.
'If any of you were told to ignore my daughter, speak now. No one loses employment for telling me the truth.'
For a moment, only rain answered from outside.
Then the night nurse lifted her hand.
'Sir,' she said, voice shaking, 'Miss Vale told us Lily's crying was manipulative.'
A second hand rose.
Then a third.