CHAPTER 6: Every Camera Was Awake

Celeste tried to smile again.
It was a smaller smile now, desperate around the edges.
'This is humiliating,' she said. 'Your daughter tripped, Mr. Bennett. Everyone is emotional.'
Leonard did not answer her.
He lifted one hand, and a security director approached from the side corridor with a tablet turned face down.
No one in the room saw the footage, but everyone understood what it meant.
Vistion Hall had cameras in every public corridor, every landing, every doorway, every angle that rich people pretended not to notice until they needed protection from their own lies.
Grant closed his eyes once.
Celeste whispered, 'Grant.'
He did not look at her.
Ava stood near the rail, breathing carefully, her satin dress wrinkled, her dignity intact by force of will.
Leonard finally turned to Celeste.
'The staircase saw what the guests were too polite to say.'
Some guests turned their faces away when the word footage entered the air. They did not want to be seen wanting to see it.
Ava was grateful for that small mercy. Her humiliation did not need a replay to become real. It had already happened to her body, her marriage, and her name.
Celeste's throat moved, but no words came.