Amber felt her throat tighten. Even Iris, who barely knew her, had the decency to ask her preference. Yet the man she had spent three years married to had never bothered to notice she couldn't eat mangoes.
"No," Amber said softly, meeting Iris's innocent gaze. "I'm allergic to mangoes."
The room seemed to shift. Sonya's gaze sharpened, her calculating mind quickly piecing together the power dynamics at play. How was it that after three years of marriage, Amber's status in the Sawyer Family remained beneath that of an outsider? To Sonya, Amber was no longer even worth the pretense of respect.
Calvin, however, turned to Amber with an incredulous expression. "Since when are you allergic to mangoes?" he asked, his tone accusing.
Amber blinked at him, caught off guard by the disbelief in his voice. The words she longed to say burned on the tip of her tongue: "Since forever. But when have you ever cared enough to notice?"
"I've already cut it," Iris said hesitantly, holding up a plate of cake adorned with golden slices of mango. She looked genuinely remorseful, though unsure why.