Chapter 4 - The Staff Table
The mansion staff had not been invited to eat until midnight.
Their Thanksgiving meal waited in aluminum trays inside the basement kitchen.
Victoria called it efficient scheduling.
Leah called it what it felt like.
Serving a family feast while their own food went cold downstairs.
Ethan looked toward the employees standing along the dining-room walls.
“How many of you have family in the Harrington apartments?”
Nine hands rose.
Victoria appeared annoyed.
“This is inappropriate.”
Eleanor stared at her.
“No.”
“What was inappropriate was making them serve dinner paid for with their retirement money.”
The household ledger showed staff holiday bonuses had also been delayed.
Victoria’s office said the trust lacked liquidity.
During the same week, the family purchased new dining chairs and commissioned a second portrait of the mansion.
A cook’s husband had postponed dental surgery.
A retired chauffeur faced eviction after a rent subsidy failed to arrive.
Leah’s mother had spent three months waiting for a broken heating system to be replaced.
Victoria wore a diamond bracelet worth more than the total delayed maintenance budget.
Ethan closed his eyes.
He had approved the Thanksgiving expenses without reading the funding source.
“I signed the event budget.”
Leah looked at him.
“Yes.”
“I thought it came from the family hospitality account.”
“But you didn’t check.”
“No.”
His admission mattered.
It did not repair anything.
Eleanor looked at her son.
“You trusted the people at the table.”
“You never asked who paid to set it.”
Then the old photograph slipped from its frame.
A handwritten note fell onto the table.
May you like
It was signed by Clara Morgan.
Leah’s great-grandmother.
