Angrier.
But sitting there, I discovered I did not need volume.
The truth already had enough weight.
My father recovered first.
“We only knew what you told us.”
“I told you I reported fraud.”
“You were emotional.”
“I was under investigation.”
“Exactly.”
“As a witness and reporting employee.”
His jaw tightened.
Amelia lowered her gaze.
“That matches what I saw.”
Colin looked at her sharply.
“What exactly did you see?”
She hesitated.
That hesitation was different from the fear she had shown when she recognized me.
This was loyalty fighting with truth.
“My father received calls after the investigators started reviewing the consulting company,” she said.
“I heard him arguing with someone about old drafts of reports.
He kept saying the wrong version could not become public.”
Colin stared at her.
“And you never mentioned this?”
“Why would I? We had just started dating.
It was my father’s business, and I didn’t understand the full situation.”
“But you knew Sophie’s name.”
“I remembered it.”
“Why?”
Amelia’s expression tightened.
“Because my father did.”
Nobody spoke.
She continued reluctantly.
“He called her the employee who wouldn’t let it go.”
I saw my mother’s eyes flick toward the relatives around the table.
That was when I understood what frightened her most.
Not that she had been wrong.
That there were witnesses to her being wrong.
The same relatives who had whispered “poor thing” when I walked in were suddenly staring at their plates.
One aunt who had spent years asking Colin about promotions and me about whether I had “found my footing yet” slowly set down her fork.
My father cleared his throat.
“This is obviously more complicated than any of us knew.”
I almost laughed.
Three years of certainty had transformed into complexity in under ten minutes.
Colin rubbed both hands over his face.
Then anger replaced confusion.
He pointed at the folder.
“Did you bring that here because you knew who Amelia was?”
“I knew her last name.”
“So this was planned.”
“I brought documents because every time I attend a family event, someone eventually explains my own life to me.”
His face reddened.
“You could have told me privately.”
“You told me not to make tonight weird before you even asked how I was.”
That stopped him.
Amelia looked between us.
“What did your family tell people?”
