The Fates (Book I) - 2014 Watty Award Winner!

2.8 - In Vain

Dear Readers: Let's check back in with Lacey's happy little family :D

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Scene 8: In Vain

A.D. 2015

“Probably couldn’t handle the sight of your diamond,” Katherine sneered.

For her part, she was glad to hear that Dan had left. She’d never harbored fondness for the bumbling boy from preschool, besotted with the supermodel so far beyond his league.

Lacey blinked, blue gaze still lowered toward the polished floor.

Her father frowned. “It still baffles me, Katherine, that you favor Lacey’s fiancé so highly,” he expressed. “He isn’t very wealthy. Poorer than Dan, in fact. Knowing your standards for appraising people, that should make Matthew worthless in your eyes.”

“Don’t be crass, Bentley. I do consider other factors.”

He felt far too old and tired, and too sober at the moment, to argue with this woman. “In any event,” he sighed, “especially since the wedding will go on, the distinction bears repeating: I have nothing against Matthew. I disapprove not of the man, but of the marriage.”

“And what difference does it make?” Katherine rejoined. “They are one in the same. A marriage to a fine man is a fine marriage.”

“Couples throughout this room prove otherwise.”

“They prove nothing. There is not a single fine man in this room,” Katherine hissed, taking care that no others present had heard those impolitic words. “Matthew served the country, alongside Grant.”

Lacey’s porcelain face went pale, her blood drained at the sound of her lost brother’s name.

And Bentley seethed. “Don’t play the patriot—as if you give a damn about the country!” His deep voice neared a dangerous volume. He curbed himself, not from fear of the looks that terrorized his wife, but out of concern for his daughter. It would be a great disservice to Lacey, to let society know just how dysfunctional her family was.

All families in this high society were dysfunctional, of course. But they were sized up by how smoothly they disguised that fact.

He lowered his voice, bent in near his wife’s ear. “Don’t play such a shameless card. You’ve stooped too low, using Matthew’s service as an excuse to favor him, for whatever sick reasons you’re hiding.”

Katherine’s gaze remained glued to her phone. She stayed as still as waxwork, even after her husband’s next words.

“And don’t you dare ever use our dead son’s name in vain.”

Lacey blinked into the angry air left in her father’s wake. Looked at her mother, who seemed to have decided which of her high-society connections to call up, concerning her daughter's Sterling Law admissions prospects.

“Ugh,” Katherine grunted, shaking her head, “so sorry you had to witness that. Another outburst from your father, in the middle of this marvelous event you’ve thrown.”

She brushed a stray speck of dust off of Lacey’s silk bodice. Dust that was perfectly invisible, to anybody else.

“Don’t let him ruffle you. He just hasn’t gotten over it.”

Lacey pursed her lips. She didn’t think that Grant’s death was something to be ‘gotten over.’

“And you know I sincerely adore Matthew, don’t you?” Katherine professed, laying a cold hand again on Lacey’s shoulder, just above the dust she’d flicked away. “That I approve of your marriage for all the right reasons?”