Victor finally found his voice.
“Everyone, this is a private family matter.”
Private? Aunt Margaret, my father’s older sister, a formidable woman in her 70s who had never liked Helena, rose from her seat.
“You just called that girl a loser in front of everyone. Now we find out she’s not even your daughter, and this is private.”
“Margaret, sit down.”
“I will not sit down.”
Margaret’s voice could have cut glass.
“Ellaner was like a daughter to me. I watched how you treated her child after she died. We all did. We just didn’t have proof that it was deliberate.”
The room erupted. Cousins whispered furiously. Business associates exchanged uncomfortable glances. The photographer from Forbes, I later learned, was furiously texting his editor.
Victor. One of his business partners, a man named Howard Chen, stood up with visible discomfort.
“I think perhaps we should—I should be going.”
“Howard, don’t be ridiculous.”
“I came here to celebrate your award, not to witness—”
He gestured vaguely at the chaos.
“Whatever this is, I’ll call you next week.”
He left. Two other associates followed.
Marcus was on his feet trying to control the damage.
“Everyone, please. My father is clearly upset. Let’s just take a breath—”
“Marcus,”
Helena’s voice was icy.
“Not now.”
But Marcus kept talking and Helena kept snapping and Victor kept clutching the adoption papers like they might burst into flames if he held them tightly enough.
Meanwhile, the truth kept spreading, and there was nothing any of them could do to stop it.
What happened next, I pieced together later from Aunt Margaret’s account. The room had descended into chaos—controlled chaos, the kind that happens at wealthy gatherings where no one raises their voice, but everyone is absolutely furious. Margaret stood at the center of it, commanding attention the way only a 73-year-old Prescott matriarch could.
“Let me make sure I understand this correctly,”
her voice cut through the murmurs.
“Victor, you married Eleanor knowing she was pregnant with another man’s child. You legally adopted Sabrina, and then you spent 30 years punishing that little girl for circumstances beyond her control.”
“Margaret, you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
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