Chapter 193: Bad Parent
"I would like to think that at least my standards are higher than yours." The old man all but rolled his eyes. "Back then, Caleb Walton pretended to be a penniless orphan. How could you allow Amelia to marry someone like that?" Horace scolded her father.
"Unlike certain people, we do not judge people by their wealth but by their character," Michael swiftly retorted, raising an eyebrow pointedly at his own father-in-law. "Besides, that Walton brat had a perfect little pretense. It also matters more if Amelia liked him or not."
Amelia stiffened a little at her father’s response, which sounded awfully familiar. Why, wasn’t that what her grandfather had said just now when she was deciding whether or not to add the gratin to her wedding menu?
She wasn’t the only one who had realized either. Horace Hawthorn’s eyelid twitched ever just the slightest, his irritance fully incurred. He huffed, the grip on his walking cane tightening before Amelia abruptly stood between them.
"Now now," she said. "I’ve already moved on, and I’ll soon be marrying someone else. He’s just right outside that door, and isn’t it a little inappropriate to discuss this right now?"
The Hawthorne patriarch said to Michael, "From what I know, Amelia married Caleb Walton fresh out of college. She was no bigger than a child at that age."
"Actually, I was already twenty―"
"As her parent, you were supposed to make sure your child would not make any rash decisions," Horace continued, entirely speaking over Amelia, who shrunk back to her spot with Carlo.
From the corner of Amelia’s eyes, she could see the various staff members slinking back into the shadows. It was one thing to watch and gather drama about the rich, and another to be caught in their deadly line of fire. They were all minimum-wage workers for the most part― one target on their back and they were done for.