Nobody answered.
I did.
“That I quit because I couldn’t handle the job.
That I caused trouble.
That I fell apart.”
Her expression changed from fear to disbelief.
“They thought you were responsible for the investigation?”
“They never cared enough to understand the difference.”
My mother stiffened.
“That is unfair.”
I turned toward her.
“You seated me beside the service door tonight because you thought my life was embarrassing.”
She glanced around the room.
“The seating arrangement had nothing to do with that.”
A server pushed through the service door directly behind my chair at that exact moment.
The timing was almost cruel enough to be funny.
Amelia looked at the door, then at my mother.
My mother looked away.
Colin stood.
“Can everyone stop? This is supposed to be our engagement dinner.”
“You’re right,” I said.
He seemed surprised by my agreement.
I began placing the pages back inside the folder.
“I didn’t come to expose anybody.
I came because you invited me.”
Amelia reached across the table.
“Wait.”
Her hand stopped an inch from the folder.
“There was another document.”
I studied her.
“What document?”
She swallowed.
“An email chain.
My father printed it.
I only saw part of it.
Someone from your company was assuring him that the language would be corrected before the final report.”
I felt the old, familiar coldness settle in my chest.
That email had been mentioned during the investigation, but I had never seen the full chain.
“Do you remember who sent it?”
“No.”
“Do you remember the date?”
“Not exactly.”
Colin stepped between our chairs emotionally, if not physically.
“Amelia, stop talking like your father committed a crime.”
She looked up at him.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You’re implying it.”
“I’m telling her what I saw.”
“At our engagement dinner.”
Amelia’s face hardened.
“Your family spent the first half of our engagement dinner humiliating a woman for reporting misconduct connected to a case involving my father.
Maybe the location stopped being the important part.”
Colin stared at her.
My mother whispered his name as if trying to pull him back toward the version of the evening she had planned.
He ignored her.
“Are you taking Sophie’s side now? You met her ten minutes ago.”
