From somewhere far away, Autumn heard Reverend Hopewell introduce Beatrice to come up and say a few words. Beatrice stood up and smoothed the back of her black and tan cotton dress. Autumn realized that Beatrice and Greg were dressed to match.
Beatrice made her way to the podium and pulled an index card from her pocket. Looking out over the crowd, she fancied herself the queen of all she surveyed — except, of course, she was not. The mansion belonged to Autumn. The thought took her eyes to where Autumn sat surrounded by her friends. Why did some people have everything and others, no matter how hard they tried, have nothing?
She spotted Greg sandwiched between the affectionate attentions of Barbara McCarthy and glares coming from Jade Fisher. If Beatrice and Jade teamed up, they might be
