Once again, Arabella Vanderbilt stole the conversation from Juliana Vanderbilt, whose delicate, pale face seemed to shrink into her shoulders as she looked at her with a pitiful expression.
"Today, the wine didn't spill on me, but what if it did? Of course, you would claim it wasn't intentional. Then you'd wait for me to get angry, wait for me to accuse you, and then... ah, yes, that's it—the way you look now, teary-eyed, pitiful, a fragile appearance as if you made a mistake but didn't mean to... And after that, there'd always be someone who'd step up to feel sorry for you, to tolerate you, to blame me for being unreasonable, for always seeking opportunities to bully you..."
As Arabella spoke, her gaze shifted to Oliver Timmerman, whose face stiffened, and as he looked down at Juliana Vanderbilt in front of him, his expression was complex.
