დ Aidan დ
The Vance dining room glittered like it had been polished for inspection. Candlelight flickered against a wall of glass, and the garden beyond had been trimmed into obedient hedges, and the white roses had blossomed into something beautiful. Before I could sit down at the dining room table, I first had to greet everyone, which only made me feel somewhat awkward and uncomfortable.
“Darling,” my mother, Evelyn, cooed before she planted a wet kiss against my cheek.
“Mother,” I said before I shook my father, Richard, outstretched hand.
“Son,”
“Father,” I said before I turned to Celeste and her parents.
“I didn’t think you would come,” Vivienne, Celeste’s mother, said. What with all this hearing nonsense,”
“Nonsense can wait,” Gregory, Celeste’s father, remarked with a smir
