Dangerous Games

A DINNER FOR THE AGES

"Good evening, ma'am." The young maid greeted them as she took their jackets.

"Are they already at the table?" Samuel asked.

"Yes. Peter would be down soon. He is the last one."

"Thanks, Mindy." The maid scurried away, and Samuel looked at her. "Try and keep your head."

"I promise nothing but to keep my sanity."

"Dad wants us on the same page."

"I know. You sang me this song the entire ride here. Let's go see what this is about."

"Hey." Samuel cheerfully announced their arrival. "Hope we didn't keep anyone waiting."

"Not at all."

He hugged his father and mother before Giovanna walked up and hugged him as well. Kali embraced Timothy warmly, complimenting him on his outfit while she merely greeted Ysabel and said a sweet but straightforward hello to Giovanna. There was keeping the peace, and there was lying. She didn't need to act like Ysabel, and Giovanna were in her good books. They both went out of their way to alienate her.

"Sorry if this might have put a dent on any plans." Timothy joked.

"It's alright. I enjoy dinners outside of the home every now and then." Kali replied.

"Then we might make a habit of this. It's good to sit with family every once in a while."

"Little brother!" Peter shook Samuel's hand before slapping him hard on his back and then sweetly turned to kiss Kali. "Sister-in-law. Hope we are feeling better today. You look great."

"Thank you. I am feeling much better."

"Let's sit to eat." Timothy invited, and they moved to take their seats.

Samuel pulled a seat out for Kali that placed her at his side, but also in front of Peter, as opposed to sitting in front of Giovanna. Also, thankfully, it had her closer to Timothy and farther away from Ysabel, who sat at the other end of the table.

Peter was in charge of sharing the food and did so diligently. They ate and had a casual conversation for the first twenty minutes. Kali knew it was to set a tone for what was to come, so she used it to pace herself. She gladly talked about her job, her sister's college, her family, and life with Samuel. Whatever they asked, she answered.

Then, after the minutes passed, it was time to face the elephant in the room. For that, Timothy took the charge.

"I guess we all heard about what happened at Mrs. Winston's dinner." Ysabel's eyes glued to Kali, but she didn't say a word. "Unfortunately, it is something that has taken off since last night. I don't know if you read the Glamour magazine today, but Moses was kind enough to bring it to my attention."

Kali didn't read those magazines, so his words caught her off guard. "It's news now?"

"Of course, it is," Giovanna whispered, but with one stare from Timothy, she kept the rest of the comment to herself.

"What did it say?" Kali asked, dragging her eyes away from Giovanna.

"It talks about your debts. Glamour magazine is mostly for scandal news and gossip. Someone at the party might have been a journalist or had contact with one. They started...investigating your debts. The article speculated that you rushed to marry into the family because it was one way to ensure your debts would be paid before you lost valuable assets. There was a claim that the loan sharks were about to call in your loans. It stated that the final payment of your debt went through on the day after the wedding."