(Author's POV)
The divorce wasn't finalized. The court hadn't issued its ruling. Aurora was still, technically, his wife - and his mother had already moved on to staging replacements in his living room.
The whole thing felt absurd, and slightly humiliating, and he couldn't say any of that with Charlotte sitting three feet away.
So he said nothing, and dinner was announced, and they all moved to the table.
Rosalind had been sitting quietly on the stairs. When the adults stood, she jumped up and announced she wanted to sit next to Charlotte.
Charlotte's first instinct was to say no. She overrode it.
"Of course," she said, and smiled.
Victoria looked pleased. She spent the first half of dinner talking about Charlotte's academic publications and the Shaw family's long history in the uni
