Vanessa crossed her arms, looking down her nose at me.
"Margaret, your mother got herself killed. Don't you dare try to pin this on Lorraine. Be smart about it and sign the settlement agreement."
The two of them stood there like royalty, waiting for me to put my name on the paper.
But I slid the agreement across the table toward them and said calmly, "If anyone's signing this, it's you two. I'm not the one with standing."
Elmer thought I was refusing. His voice dropped to something dangerous. "Margaret, don't push your luck."
"Your mother was a nobody—unemployed, no value to anyone. Lorraine is young. She has her whole life ahead of her. You'd really destroy her future over a dead woman?"
Vanessa wrinkled her nose in agreement. "Exactly. Your mother was a waste of resources while she was alive. Lorraine practically did the world a favor."
"You should be thanking her, not trying to shake her down."
I kept my tone even. "You've got it wrong. What I'm saying is—the woman who died is your mother. This settlement agreement? Only you can sign it."
Vanessa's composure cracked instantly. "Have you lost your mind, Margaret? You're standing at my mother's welcome-home banquet, cursing her with talk of death?"
Elmer's face went white with fury. "Margaret, I've been far too lenient with you over the years. That's clearly why you've become so brazen—you don't even know the meaning of basic respect."
"My mother is the most important person in my life. I will not tolerate a single word of disrespect toward her—not even from my own wife."
He whipped around and barked at the bodyguard beside him. "Take that old hag's body and throw it in the cesspit."
The bodyguard glanced at me, hesitating. "Mr. Farley, that's... that doesn't seem right."
Elmer's voice cut like a blade. "She won't sign the agreement? She wants to curse my mother? Then I'll show her exactly what happens when someone disrespects her."
"Do as I say. Whatever comes of it, I'll handle it."
The bodyguard didn't dare defy him a second time and left to carry out the order.
The guests began shaking their heads, murmuring among themselves.
"She's touched Elmer Farley's one true nerve."
"Of course—his father died young. Isabella raised those two on her own. Everyone knows she's the person he cares about most. And Margaret stands here at Isabella's welcome banquet and curses her? The woman's unhinged."
"No wonder her mother's dead. Saddle any parent with a daughter that ungrateful, and who'd live long?"
Their words were vicious.
They didn't touch me.
I ignored every single one of them, fixed my gaze on Elmer, and spoke slowly, deliberately—one word at a time.
"Elmer, are you sure you want to take this all the way?"
He stared down at me, cold and imperious. "Margaret, you brought this on yourself."
"Your mother died because she was shameless—always looking for a handout, always cutting corners."
"You had no right to stand here at my mother's banquet and curse her, again and again."
"If you ask me, your mother deserved an early grave for raising a daughter who doesn't know gratitude or respect."
The words had barely left his mouth.
My mother walked through the front door of the villa. She looked at Elmer, genuinely puzzled.
"Who died?"
