“This is private family business.
That woman should leave.”
She pointed at Dottie.
Dottie flushed.
I stood.
“No.”
Everyone looked at me.
It was the first time all evening I raised my voice, and I barely raised it at all.
“Dottie is here because her company was brought into this.
Miles is here because you told me I didn’t belong in my own house.
Sloane is here because Preston invited her.
And all of you are here because I did.”
I looked at Evelyn.
“So don’t point at the one person in this room who showed up carrying my things back to me.”
Dottie gave me the smallest nod.
Evelyn sat down.
Preston tried another approach.
His tone softened.
“Claire, come outside.
We can talk without an audience.”
That was the voice he used when he wanted to move the conversation somewhere he could rewrite it later.
I shook my head.
“You chose the audience.”
His jaw tightened.
“I didn’t know my mother was going to say those things.”
Evelyn looked offended.
Sloane stared at him.
I almost laughed.
He had spent the night allowing two women to speak for him, and now he was trying to retreat through the space between their words.
“Did you know about the towels?” I asked.
He hesitated.
“I knew Sloane ordered some new things.”
“Did you know my mother’s linen was removed?”
“I didn’t inspect the closets, Claire.”
“Did you know her initials were going on every place setting?”
“It’s embroidery.”
“Did you know the order said to remove your wife’s initials before she arrived?”
He looked at Sloane.
That look answered more than he intended.
She stood so quickly her chair tipped backward.
“You said she knew.”
Preston’s face hardened.
“Sit down.”
“You said Claire knew we were moving forward.”
“This isn’t the time.”
“You told me she had agreed to stop coming here.”
I said nothing.
Sloane’s eyes found mine.
For the first time that night, there was no smugness in them.
Only realization.
She had been cruel to me.
She had participated willingly in replacing my things and displaying a last name that was not hers.
But Preston had also lied to her.
That did not excuse her.
It simply widened the circle of his deception.
Evelyn rushed in to save him.
