Chapter 2 - The Cracks in the Marble
As the night wore on, the reception slowly began to bleed out into the sprawling marble foyer of the hotel. The heavy oak doors had been thrown open, revealing a breathtaking expanse of polished stone, soaring columns, and gilded mirrors. Guests lingered in clusters, waiting for valets and exchanging hushed, drunken gossip.
Aunt Coraline, wrapped in a garish sequined party dress that caught the foyer’s massive chandelier light, leaned in close to Kalista. "Your new father-in-law is in rare form tonight, dear," Coraline whispered, the ice clinking in her bourbon glass. "I heard him utterly berating poor Lenora in the cloakroom. The woman can't do anything right in his eyes."
"Why does no one stop him?" Kalista asked, her muscles tensing as she spotted Sterling and Lenora emerging from the ballroom.
"Stop Sterling?" Coraline let out a shrill, breathless laugh. "Oh, honey. You don't stop Sterling. You just stay out of his way."
Across the foyer, the tension between Sterling and Lenora was no longer simmering; it was boiling over. Lenora stumbled slightly over the hem of her gown, dropping a small velvet clutch.
"You stupid, clumsy woman," Sterling hissed, his voice carrying over the fading hum of the departing crowd. "You have embarrassed me for the absolute last time tonight."
"Sterling, please," Lenora pleaded, her voice trembling as she knelt to pick up the bag. "The guests are watching. Please don't do this here."
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"I don't care who is watching!" Sterling roared, his face turning a mottled crimson. "You are pathetic. A complete and utter waste of space!"
Thatcher, standing a few feet from Kalista, barely blinked. "God, Mother always has to make a scene," he muttered under his breath, adjusting his cufflinks. Kalista turned to her husband, absolute disgust flashing in her eyes, before she began to walk purposefully toward the older couple.
