CHAPTER 6: The Silence After the Answer

No donor knew where to look after that.
The violin music faltered. A server froze with a silver tray near the dessert table. Catherine's mother, seated near the front, lifted a napkin to her mouth as if the word itself had stained the air.
Catherine recovered first because she had practiced recovery all her life.
"Children attach themselves to help," she said lightly. "It happens. Evelyn should have corrected it."
Evelyn's eyes did not leave Grant.
"I tried," she said. "For months. He was punished every time he said it, so he learned to whisper it."
Grant went still.
Catherine's smile died completely.
"That is a lie."
Evelyn shook her head once.
"No, ma'am. The lie is upstairs, in the nursery cameras you ordered removed last week. The lie is in the school reports your assistant buried. The lie is in the behavior clinic form you planned to have Mr. Whitmore sign after tonight."
Catherine's hand tightened around her emerald clutch.
Grant looked at his wife, and for the first time that evening she looked afraid of him rather than annoyed by him.
"What clinic?" he asked.