The Wray family ate dinner at seven. Daphne arrived at ten past, on purpose.
The dining room smelled like rosemary chicken and old money.
Cleo sat at the head of the table with her blue eyes already red.
She had been crying for a while. The tears were timed, like everything she did.
Cleo: I can't go on that stage, Mom. I'll freeze. I can't do it without Daph.
Maura set down her fork and rubbed Cleo's back in slow circles.
Maura: Nobody is asking you to do it alone, sweetheart.
Daphne stood near the wall. Nobody at the table looked up.
Maura cut Cleo's chicken into small pieces. She had never once done that for Daphne.
Maura: Sit down. You've upset your sister enough for one day.
Daphne: All I said was no.
Her stomach turned. Her mother's hand on Cleo's back, her brother's jaw already working.
They were not angry that Cleo was crying. They were angry that Daphne had stopped being useful.
Gil: You've been a jealous little bitch since the day she got here.
Gil: Tell her to her face. Tell her why you'd let her fail.
Daphne: She can sing her own song. Or she can't.
Gil's chair scraped back so hard the server flinched.
His palm cracked across her mouth before she finished the breath.
Her lip split against her teeth. The blood came warm and salty.
Nobody moved. The server stared at the carpet.
Maura: Gil. Sit down.
Maura said it in her soft voice, and Gil sat.
Maura: Here is the deal, Daphne. You sign that song over to Cleo tonight.
Maura: Or tomorrow I tell every gossip feed in this city what the number on your wrist is.
Under her sleeve, the countdown ticked. Two days fell off it while her mother spoke.
So it was true. Maura could make the clock move.
Daphne: You would do that to me.
Maura: I would do worse. You know that.
Daphne wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. The blood came away bright red.
She had paid for their love in songs her whole life. Now they wanted blood too.
Daphne: No.
Gil: Say that again and see what happens.
Daphne: No.
Maura's face changed. For one second she looked like a stranger in her own house.
Maura: Then you lose everything, and you have nobody to blame but yourself.
Daphne: I would rather lose it than hand it to you.
She walked out with blood on her lip and the countdown ticking under her sleeve.