Dad knocked three times.
Delphine glanced toward him.
The server arrived carrying a chair.
Josephine moved a place setting to create room.
I reached for the chair.
Delphine seized the back and pulled it away.
The legs screamed across the marble.
Then there was no seat beneath me.
I fell beside the table.
The goblet shattered. Several small pieces cut my palm as I tried to steady myself.
The entire ballroom became silent.
Delphine stood above me gripping the chair.
“You don’t belong at the family table,” she said.
Dad struck the armrest three times.
Julian stood.
“That’s enough.”
His overturned chair lay behind him.
He looked directly at Delphine.
“Do you want me to tell everyone the truth?”
She released the chair.
“There is no truth. Your sister came here to create a scene.”
“Simone did not pull the chair.”
“She was forcing her way into my table.”
“Your father asked for her.”
“He does not understand what she has done.”
Dad’s hand came down three times again.
Josephine took his tablet from the chair pocket and placed it across his lap.
Delphine stepped toward him.
“Give me that.”
A venue security employee moved between them.
“Ma’am, please remain where you are.”
“That device belongs to my father.”
“It belongs with him,” Josephine said.
Julian came around the table.
He crouched near Dad, keeping his voice clear and steady.
“Walter, did you agree to pay for our wedding?”
Dad knocked three times.
Julian looked toward the tablet.
“Can you answer on the screen?”
Dad selected NO.
A murmur passed through the guests.
Delphine’s face changed.
“You do not know what she told him.”
I remained on the floor while a server pressed a clean napkin against my palm.
I never touched the tablet.
Dad selected another phrase.
I UNDERSTAND.
Josephine turned the screen so the people nearest the table could see.
“He understands every word,” she said.
Delphine’s breath shortened.
“Dad, you promised to help me.”
He selected NO.
“You said what was yours would be ours.”
NO.
“You wanted me to have a beautiful wedding.”
Dad paused.
Then he selected:
NOT WITH CARE MONEY.
Julian stepped away from Delphine.
“What is care money?”
“No one calls it that,” she said quickly. “It is just his account.”
“My account,” Dad’s tablet said.
The synthetic voice carried farther than anyone expected.
Delphine stared at him.
My mother rose from her chair.
“This is not the place.”
Julian turned toward her.
“Did you know?”
Helen looked around the ballroom, calculating who could hear.