She looked toward the long birthday table decorated with gold-lettered place cards and velvet chair covers.
“Move the trash bags.”
No one obeyed.
Margaret’s eyes sharpened.
“Now.”
Richard hurried toward them in his expensive loafers and dragged them away while several cousins stepped aside.
Vanessa’s cheeks darkened with humiliation.
Margaret pointed toward the head of the children’s table.
“Mia will sit there.”
Sloane protested immediately.
“That’s Parker’s seat.”
Margaret looked at her.
“Then Parker can learn generosity on his birthday.”
Parker had remained silent with frosting smeared across his chin.
Without arguing, he climbed down from the chair.
He looked embarrassed, though Elena could not tell whether he regretted what happened or simply disliked everyone staring at him.
Mia did not move.
Elena bent beside her.
“You don’t have to stay, baby. We can leave.”
Mia looked down at the dinosaur puzzle resting on her lap.
“I want him to open it.”
The quiet answer nearly broke Elena’s heart.
Margaret nodded.
“Then he will.”
When Mia finally sat at the head of the table, the children looked at her differently.
Not kindly.
Not yet.
They looked at her as though she had suddenly become powerful in a way they could not understand.
Vanessa leaned toward Richard and hissed, “Fix this.”
Margaret heard her.
“There is nothing to fix,” she said. “There is only what comes next.”
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