The room went silent.
Every eye landed on Samuel.
Even Thomas and Carissa were frowning at him now, and there was something cold in their stares.
The little maid, too, kept her terrified eyes fixed on Samuel.
The truth was, she wanted to look at me. She was terrified precisely because she understood better than anyone that she wanted to smear me and simply couldn't control it.
But she couldn't fix on me, so her gaze drifted naturally to the nearest target instead. Samuel.
Which made it look, to everyone else, like she was afraid Samuel would take his revenge.
Samuel was no fool. Even cornered like this, he stayed remarkably calm. “This, this…… Mandy, are you possessed or something?”
He'd wanted to keep the maid slandering me a while longer, but he'd sensed how wrong this was, and didn't dare let her run her mouth anymore.
Carissa was the superstitious type, and with the maid acting this strangely, she said at once, “She's definitely possessed. Get her to a hospital first, then find someone who can look at her properly!”
Thomas wasn't superstitious, but he wanted to turn this page just as badly, and quickly agreed. “Somebody, get this possessed girl out of here!”
Then he turned to the guests. :
“My apologies, everyone. It seems someone in the household has been possessed!”
“With something like this happening, let's call the reunion here for tonight!”
Not one of them believed the maid was truly possessed, but no one called it out. They exchanged a few pleasantries and left, one after another.
Soon there were no outsiders left in the mansion.
I sat on the sofa. Across from me were Thomas and Carissa, their faces livid, furious.
Samuel stood off to the side, crying without stopping, explaining without stopping.
“Dad, Mom, I never said any of those things!”
“I think, I think Mandy must have been forced by someone.”
As he spoke he turned his eyes toward me, trying to steer our parents into suspecting me.
But that malice-filled stare of his slid right past me and landed on my mother instead.
Thomas and I looked at Carissa, our eyes full of scrutiny.
Carissa jabbed a finger at her own nose. “Why are you looking at me? Samuel, what are you saying? Are you telling me I forced that maid to frame the two of you?”
I said, angry, :
“Samuel, Mom treats you better than she treats me, her own son. How dare you suspect her?”
“And Mom has no motive for it. What would she gain from forcing someone to frame you and Dad?”
Thomas frowned, thinking it over, as if trying to find a motive for Carissa to have done such a thing.
“Mom, that's not what I meant.”
Samuel was frantic and wanted to explain right away, but what came out of his mouth was something else entirely. :
“My brother grew up out there, he's seen nothing of the world, he's easy to handle!”
“My sister's adopted, and she'll be married off sooner or later, so she's no threat!”
“Get rid of me and Dad, and that vile woman Carissa gets her hands on the whole Swanson fortune, and can funnel it all to her own relatives!”
Thomas and Carissa's faces couldn't have looked worse, staring at Samuel in utter disbelief.
I feigned shock. “Mom's been this good to you, and you go making up vicious things about her, and calling her a vile woman on top of it?”
