Chapter 2 - Robert Asked Everyone to Leave Except the Four of Them
The dinner ended immediately.
No dramatic announcement was necessary.
The remaining guests understood.
Coats were collected.
Apologies were murmured.
People stepped carefully around the shattered porcelain and escaped through the foyer.
Within fifteen minutes, the Whitmore dining room was empty except for Claire, Ethan, Margaret, and Robert.
Margaret stood by the windows, still holding one hand near her cheek as though she were the person who had been assaulted.
Ethan helped Claire sit in the adjoining breakfast room.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
“For what?”
“For letting it get this far.”
Claire looked at him.
That answer mattered.
Not:
I’m sorry Mom hit you.
I’m sorry I broke the dishes.
He meant years.
Margaret appeared in the doorway.
“Are you two finished performing?”
Ethan stood again.
Robert’s voice came from behind her.
“Sit down, Margaret.”
She turned sharply.
“Do not speak to me like that.”
“I said sit down.”
Something in Robert’s expression made her obey.
Claire had known her father-in-law for twelve years.
She had seen him stern.
Angry.
Disappointed.
She had never seen him look at Margaret like this.
Robert placed a leather folder on the breakfast table.
Margaret saw it.
Her face changed almost imperceptibly.
Claire noticed.
“What is that?” Ethan asked.
Robert looked at his son.
“Why your mother has spent the last four years convincing everyone Claire wanted this family divided.”
The room went still.
Margaret laughed.
It sounded forced.
“Robert, stop.”
He opened the folder.
“No.”
One word.
May you like
Forty-one years of marriage suddenly seemed to shift beneath it.
---
Related Stories
