Part 1
The first fistful of my hair came loose in my mother-in-law’s hand before anyone at the banquet table stopped laughing. By the time she dragged me across the marble floor, my husband was filming, and my brother-in-law was raising a champagne glass to the five hundred meals he expected me to cook for free.
“Get up, Nora,” Celeste hissed. Her diamond bracelet flashed as she twisted harder. “Tomorrow, Damian becomes mayor. You will not embarrass this family.”Family
I planted both palms against the cold floor and forced myself not to scream. Around us, the Vale estate glittered with inauguration banners, imported flowers, and enough crystal to feed a hospital for a year. Thirty relatives watched as though cruelty were entertainment. My husband, Adrian, leaned against the fireplace, smiling behind his phone.
I had spent twelve hours that morning reviewing the menu Celeste had dropped on my bed: five hundred plated dinners, prepared overnight in the estate’s unlicensed basement kitchen, using unpaid immigrant workers and food bought through Damian’s campaign account.
