Chapter 2 - The Wrong Toast
Luca ordered the dining room doors closed but told the guests they were free to leave through the main hall. That distinction mattered. He wasn't holding forty-six people hostage to his anger. He was trying to stop the story from changing before the staff could explain what happened.
"No one touches the broken glass," he told the house manager, Mrs. Alvarez. "Call the cleaning supervisor, photograph it, and keep the area clear."
Vanessa scoffed. "Are we opening a crime lab over sparkling wine?"
"We don't know what it was," Luca answered.
Michael crouched beside me. "I'm sorry she hit you."
"You don't have to apologize for her."
His hands trembled. He was fighting shame, not reaching for another drink.
Leo finally raised his eyes. "I prepared three pitchers. Two champagne, one cider. Michael's glass had a blue dot under the foot, like he requested."
"Was that the glass she served?" Luca asked.
Leo looked at the shattered pieces. "I can't tell."
Vanessa gave a weary sigh. "Michael knows how to say no. A single drink wouldn't kill him."
Michael stood. "It wasn't your choice to make."
She blinked. For eighteen months I'd watched her interrupt staff, correct guests and speak for the family. I had never heard someone she considered beneath her refuse so plainly.
Luca asked to see the banquet plan. Mrs. Alvarez unfolded the sheet. Michael's place setting was marked CIDER in green ink. Beside it someone had added a second instruction in black: REPLACE BEFORE TOAST.
"Who wrote that?" Luca asked.
"I didn't," Leo said.
Vanessa snatched at the sheet, but Mrs. Alvarez kept it flat beneath her palm.
"You can't humiliate me like this," Vanessa whispered.
Luca met her eyes. "Then help me understand why you humiliated my brother."
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The first guests began leaving without their coats. Mrs. Alvarez's phone buzzed. She read the notification twice, then showed Luca a photograph posted by a guest: my face turned from Vanessa's slap, captioned THE MAID ATTACKED THE BOSS'S BROTHER.
The picture had been posted four minutes before Vanessa slapped me.
