Chapter 2: The Porcelain Secret
Clara wiped her face with the back of her hand, standing up from the dining chair. Her peach dress rustled softly as she stood tall, her lower lip trembling, but a subtle change shifted behind her tear-stained eyes.
She didn't run toward the kitchen. She didn't retreat to the servant quarters.
Instead, Clara walked with deliberate, quiet steps toward the marble-topped sideboard sitting beneath a brass wall sconce in the hallway just outside the dining archway.
Sitting on the marble surface was an antique blue-and-white Chinese porcelain vaseโa 19th-century heirloom that had belonged to her late father, Arthur Sterling, the founder of the family empire.
Behind her in the dining room, Victor pulled out his chair and sat back down, picking up his glass with a triumphant smirk. "That girl needs to learn her place in this house. Ever since Arthur died, she thinks she still has a share in this estate."
"She has nothing, Victor," Eleanor said smoothly, setting her champagne flute down. "Arthur left the entirety of the residential trust to us before he passed. Her name isn't on a single deed."