Charlotte began crying silently.
Victoria’s voice became desperate.
“You think schools care about you?”
“You think strangers care?”
“Family is what remains.”
Samantha looked around the room.
“This?”
Her voice cracked.
“This is what remained?”
Victoria reached toward her.
Samantha stepped back.
The movement hurt Victoria visibly.
Good.
Again, Samantha let herself think it.
Malcolm spoke.
“There are financial records too.”
Victoria turned.
“What records?”
“Payments from trust income allocated for Samantha’s education.”
The room became silent.
Samantha whispered:
“There was education money?”
Malcolm nodded.
“Your father created separate annual allowances for all three daughters.”
Olivia looked confused.
“I have mine.”
Charlotte whispered:
“So do I.”
Samantha looked at them.
“What?”
Olivia’s face collapsed.
“We thought you did too.”
Charlotte stepped forward.
“Our accounts.”
“Mom said Dad created them for us.”
“She said yours was smaller because…”
She stopped.
“Because what?”
Charlotte began crying.
“Because you weren’t interested in college.”
Samantha laughed.
A broken sound.
Victoria turned away.
Samantha looked at Malcolm.
“Where did mine go?”
He placed a spreadsheet on the table.
“Much of it was withdrawn under household-support classifications.”
Samantha stared.
“Household support.”
Malcolm nodded.
“Approximately two hundred eighty-six thousand dollars over six years.”
Samantha stopped breathing.
Victoria whirled.
“That money paid for her life.”
Evelyn actually laughed.
The sound shocked everyone.
“For her life?”
She pointed toward the service staircase.
“She sleeps beside the linen room.”
“She wears her sisters’ old coats.”
“She drove my Honda because you said adding her to the insurance was wasteful.”
Samantha stared at Evelyn.
The car was Evelyn’s.
She knew that.
She had never understood why.
Now she did.
Victoria’s voice grew louder.
“She lived in a multimillion-dollar home.”
“That does not cost two hundred eighty-six thousand dollars!”
Olivia said.
Everyone turned.
Her face had changed completely.
For the first time, Victoria looked at Olivia not as an extension of herself but as an adversary.
Olivia continued.
“You spent Samantha’s education money?”
“I used family funds for family expenses.”
“For what?”
Victoria’s silence lasted too long.
Charlotte looked toward the dining room.
Gold table settings.
Custom flowers.
Designer dresses.
Trips.
Cars.
Samantha saw realization spread.
“How much of our lifestyle was hers?” Charlotte whispered.
Victoria snapped:
“Enough.”
Malcolm shook his head.