Chapter 14 - The Family Name
Mother entered the library as though it belonged to her alone. Her gaze moved from the open cabinet to the ledger in Priya's gloved hand. She didn't ask why we were there. She knew.
“You've chosen strangers over your own blood,” she told me.
“Grace is my wife. Lily is my sister.”
“Lily is a mistake your father made.”
Olivia stepped forward. “Don't you dare talk about her that way.”
Mother gave a thin smile. “So the bride has finally found her backbone.”
Priya interrupted. “This is a documented inventory under the trustee's authority. Any concerns can be addressed through counsel.”
Vincent started to speak, but Mother held up a hand. For a moment I saw the woman who had terrified our household with silence rather than shouting.
Mother had always spoken of blood as a sacred obligation, yet she could dismiss Lily with one sentence and injure Grace without remorse. I looked at Olivia, my sister who'd been frightened of losing her allowance, and saw her standing straighter than she had at any of our childhood dinners. Maybe family loyalty was not obedience. Maybe it was the courage to stop a person you loved from hurting everyone else. For the first time, my sister and I understood that together.
“Your father wasn't a saint,” she said. “He created a scandal. I protected you children.”
“By hurting my pregnant wife?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Grace should have minded her business.”
Nobody moved. The sentence settled over the library like smoke. Mother had not admitted every accusation, but she had stopped pretending Grace meant nothing to this.
I told her the police had the wedding footage. “I'm not covering for you anymore.”
She walked to the doorway, then glanced back. “You think you've won because you found a few papers? Ask Vincent what happened to the last person who tried to take them.”
Vincent went pale. Mother noticed and smiled, pleased at last to have frightened someone.
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After she left, Vincent's phone rang. He ignored it, then looked directly at Priya.
“I want a lawyer who doesn't work for Evelyn,” he said. “And I want protection.”
