“That’s not fair.”
“Which part?”
She didn’t answer.
My father reached for his glass and then seemed to think better of it.
Marcus seized on my mother’s discomfort.
“Exactly,” he said.
“She’s trying to make everyone feel indebted to her.”
My uncle looked at him.
“She never mentioned my loan until tonight.”
Marcus turned on him.
“That’s not the point.”
“It feels like the point,” my uncle said.
The room shifted again.
For the first time, Marcus was losing control of people he had assumed were securely behind him.
He stood.
“Oh, come on.
Five minutes ago everyone agreed with me.
Don’t suddenly act innocent because Claire brought paperwork.”
He was right about one thing.
They had agreed with him.
I wanted them to remember that.
“Nobody here is innocent,” I said.
The silence returned.
I looked at Aunt Patricia first.
“You clapped.”
Her eyes filled.
Then my uncle.
“You nodded.”
He looked away.
Kylie was already crying.
“You agreed too.”
She whispered, “I’m sorry.”
Then I looked at my parents.
That was harder.
My mother’s face had gone pale.
My father’s jaw worked as if he were trying to find words strong enough to repair something his silence had helped break.
“And you two,” I said, “sat there.”
My mother started to speak.
I shook my head.
“You don’t get to call it staying neutral.
There was no neutral seat at this table.”
My father flinched.
Marcus laughed sharply.
“Listen to her.
She’s been waiting to say this.”
I turned to him.
“No.
I spent years trying not to say any of it.”
That answer seemed to unsettle him more than anger would have.
Megan had reached the later pages now.
“What are these?” she asked.
“The things that end tonight,” I said.
Marcus moved toward her.
“Give me that.”
Megan pulled the folder away.
“No.”
