Caleb’s gaze meets mine briefly, like he’s checking in on a situation he can already see escalating.
I don’t say anything. But my hand lands on the back of Lucy’s chair, just behind her, as if claiming space.
I tell myself it’s protective.
I tell myself it’s instinct.
I tell myself I don’t care.
Dinner begins.
Speeches. Applause. Plates served and cleared.
Lucy speaks when spoken to, laughs when it’s appropriate, navigates conversation like she’s always belonged at tables like this, even though I know she hasn’t.
That’s the thing about her.
She adapts without losing herself.
That should not be attractive to me.
And yet, when she smiles, the gold flecks in her eyes catch candlelight, and it looks like something is burning behind them.
When the main course is cleared, the room loosens. Music starts. The first couples move toward the dance floor.
Theo stands immediately. “Dance.”
Lucy blinks. “Theo...”
“I said dance,” he repeats, and holds out his hand with mock solemnity. “I need to confirm something.”
Lucy laughs despite herself. “Confirm what?”
“That you will move across the dance floor like I have dreamed you would,” he says.
She rolls her eyes, but she stands and, for a moment, just a moment, before she follows Theo, she looks at me.
Then my brother is guiding her across the room towards the dance floor.
I watch them dance, then let my focus narrow.
The room is full of watchers. My father’s watchers. The board’s watchers.
And I can already feel the moment coming when Richard North arrives to remind me that nothing I do is ever mine.
Elaine appears first.
My mother approaches the table with a smile that never reaches her eyes. She’s elegant, poised, untouched by the mess my father makes of everything.
“Julian,” she says, and kisses my cheek.
I accept it. I don’t lean into it.
That’s how we’ve always been.
She greets Elliot. Rowan. Caleb. Even Harper, with a warmth that looks real on the surface. Harper returns it perfectly.
Then Richard arrives.
