My father’s face changed immediately.
“I mean,” he corrected, “there’s no reason for anybody to be upset.”
“There was a reason when she was alone in the kitchen,” Alexander said.
My mother gave a brittle laugh.
“You’ve walked into one family dinner and think you understand everything?”
“No,” he said.
“I walked into one family dinner and saw enough.”
Vanessa pushed back her hair.
“Mom wasn’t trying to humiliate her.
Emma is making it sound worse than it was.”
I turned toward my sister.
“What did you say when I filled your water?”
Her face froze.
“What?”
“You told me I was better at this stuff anyway.”
“That was a joke.”
“And Logan?”
Logan’s eyes narrowed.
“Don’t drag me into this.”
“You called me staff.”
He lifted both hands.
“Jesus, Emma.
Everyone jokes with you because you’re so serious.”
There it was.
The familiar mechanism.
Something cruel happened.
I objected.
Suddenly the problem became my inability to take a joke.
Usually I surrendered at that point.
That night, I didn’t.
“A joke is supposed to be funny to the person it’s about,” I said.
No one answered.
Alexander said nothing either.
He simply stood beside me.
That mattered.
My father glanced toward him and then back at me.
“Emma, whatever happened tonight, we can discuss it privately.
There’s no need to create a scene in front of Mr.
Hayes.”
I stared at him.
“Dad, you invited all these people here.
Mom put me in the kitchen in front of all these people.
Logan called me staff in front of all these people.
But me answering them is the scene?”
Richard’s face reddened.
Alexander exhaled through his nose.
My father noticed.
And then he made the mistake that finally clarified everything.
He stepped close to me and lowered his voice.
“Please don’t let a family disagreement interfere with business.”
There it was.
Not I’m sorry.
Not Are you all right?
Not I should have noticed.
Business.
Alexander heard him.
