Chapter 24 - DIANA SAYS WHAT SERVICE MEANT
Diana testified.
She began badly.
“Elise was emotional.”
The judge interrupted.
“Describe conduct, not character.”
Good.
She corrected.
“Elise was angry.”
True.
“She said she was leaving.”
True.
“I believed Nathan was about to come downstairs and the family could address the situation privately.”
Also true.
Then:
“Why give her the tray?”
Diana looked at me.
“I wanted her to stop.”
“Stop leaving?”
“Yes.”
“How does a tray stop someone?”
Silence.
“I wanted her to remember herself.”
“What does that mean?”
Diana’s hands tightened.
“That she was the hostess. Nathan’s wife. This was family.”
There.
“And if she carried the tray?”
“People would sit. Dinner would continue.”
“While Nathan came downstairs with lipstick on his shirt?”
Diana looked away.
The judge asked:
“You knew about Ms. Holloway?”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“I knew more than Elise did.”
“Did you believe Elise had the right to know?”
Diana took a long time.
“Eventually.”
That word filled the room.
Eventually.
Then the prosecutor asked:
“Who decided when?”
“I thought I was protecting her.”
“By withholding information?”
“Yes.”
“By keeping her downstairs while her husband met his affair partner?”
Diana’s voice lowered.
“Yes.”
“By forcing a tray into her when she tried to leave?”
Diana closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
Then:
“What did you mean by wives serve this family?”
Her eyes opened.
Something inside her had finally stopped fighting the wording.
“I meant a wife does not abandon the room because her husband has failed her.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“Because that is what I did.”
There.
Her own marriage.
Her own humiliation.
Her own rule.
Then she said:
“I thought endurance was dignity.”
The prosecutor asked:
“And now?”
Diana looked at Clara’s photograph? No, not in court. She looked at me.
“Now I think I turned my endurance into Elise’s obligation.”
That was the truth.
May you like
Too late for my birthday.
Not too late to enter the record.
