This was my first visit to the Ellis household, and I wasn’t particularly looking forward to it. As we crawled up the cobblestone drive to the huge, fancy house in the affluent Philadelphia suburb of Waterloo, I gaped.

“It looks just like the White House,” I said, “is that intentional?”

To my left in the driver’s seat, Nathan smiled.

“I forgot to mention that, didn’t I?” He replied with an eye roll, “I don’t know if The Senator built it to look like this, or if it’s just what attracted him to it, but yeah. It’s a tiny White House. The Senator knows what he wants.”

I giggled sporadically at the house ahead of me all the way up until we got to the front door. Apparently, Angelica’s flair for the dramatic didn’t come from nowhere.

I’d never been to a party at the real White House, so I can’t speak to whether the interior was a small-scale reproduction. It was fancy though, with lots of crystal chandeliers and that post-Martha Stuart grey-beige decorating everywhere that was somewhere between a Restoration Hardware and an Antropologie. It was pretty and uncomfortable looking.

Inside the house, a number of strangers in nice clothing greeted us by name. They looked important, but I don’t think I’d ever met them. Nathan, at least, seemed to know them. My role seemed limited to hanging on his arm, smiling, and allowing well-coiffed women that smelled like Chanel No. 5 to kiss me on the cheek.

“Madison!” I called out when I saw the tiny woman through the crowd, “Hi!”

She cut through the people around her and made her way over with the baby in her arms, and I darted as best I could toward her. She was small enough that she could just sort of weave through people’s conversations without interrupting. It’s much harder to do that politely when you’re tall.

“Hey there Zoey,” She said, hugging me with one arm. I inspected and cooed at the sleeping, pudgy faced infant she was carrying in the other arm until she handed him over to me. “Did you two have fun in Florida?” She continued.

“Yes, we did,” I replied, accepting the little, sleeping bundle of swaddling from her, “although I feel like we should never go anywhere and just follow you around all the time because baby Al doubles in size each time I see him!”

Madison looked at the baby affectionately, brushing her fingertips over his little, red cheeks. Alexander IV sighed in his sleep, his little eyelids flickering while he dreamed about whatever babies dream about. Boobs and milk, probably. Maybe pooping.

“I can’t believe how fast he’s growing,” she admitted, “I already sort-of want another tiny one. Is that bad?”

I shrugged.

“Why would it be?” I said, rocking him in my arms, “Who wouldn’t want more of this?”

Madison grinned at me.

A moment later, Nathan caught up to me, followed quickly by Alexander III.

“Nathan,” Alexander said, inclining his head to his cousin. Then he smiled pleasantly at me and said, “Hello Zoey,” in a much nicer tone.

“Alexander,” Nathan replied with matching coolness.

The relationship between these two men was really baffling and bizarre to me. There was no explicit animosity or vitriol between them, but they seemed to regard one another as friendly rivals rather than loving relatives. Madison merely rolled her eyes at their stilted greeting. She clearly thought the relationship was strange, too.

“Hi Nathan,” Madison said pleasantly, going up on her tiptoes to kiss him affectionately on the cheek, “happy Thanksgiving.”

“Thanksgiving?” Nathan replied with mock-incredulity, “That was ages ago. It’s already Christmas at my house. Zoey got us a tree and everything.”

“I can’t believe it’s already Christmas again,” Alexander said, shaking his head in disbelief, and looking at his son, “this year seems to have flown by. I wish time would slow down just a little bit.”

The baby woke unexpectedly then, gurgling in apparent surprise at his own return to consciousness. I offered the now fussy baby to Madison, but Alexander took him instead, rocking him expertly and speaking softly to him until he quieted. Alexander held his son almost reverently. Every time he looked down at the baby he seemed to be both surprised and delighted. Nathan watched Alexander interacting with his son curiously, but when he caught me observing him, he instantly looked away. The tips of his ears had turned red.

“When are you two going back to Haiti?” I asked Madison to make conversation. Hopefully, Nathan and I could go visit them there soon.

Madison, who was always happy to talk about Haiti, unexpectedly grimaced.

“Probably not for a few months,” she replied with resignation, “with everything that’s going on with the family, it’s not really the greatest time to leave the country. Hopefully we’ll get to go back soon. There’s a lot going on with the foundation right now. It’s hard to be away, but necessary.”

I nodded in understanding.

She wasn’t talking about the baby, or Christmas. The physical condition of Alexander Durant I, who was pushing up into his mid-nineties, had taken a turn for the worse. Although I’d still never met the man, his dementia was reportedly worsening dramatically, and he’d contracted pneumonia recently. No one wanted to say it, but he was obviously going to die very soon. Having been through the death of all four of my own grandparents, I only hoped his death was swift and painless.

Our moment of familial cohesion was abruptly interrupted by a familiar but deeply unwanted voice.

“Madison!” Angelica crooned, sweeping up to our little group with a big, fake smile plastered on her lovely features, “let me get a look at that little baby of yours.”

Angelica ignored me and Nathan as she was given the shortest glimpse of Alexander IV that Alexander III could manage before he pressed the baby back to his shoulder protectively. He clearly disliked her intensely. Madison watched Angelica with narrowed eyes. She looked like she might need to pounce on her with the wrath of a mother bear at any moment. Madison was probably only two or three inches removed from her height being a legal disability, but I wouldn’t bet against her in that match up.

“He looks just like you Maddie,” Angelica said, “are you sure he has any Durant in him?”

My lips parted in disbelief. Rude. Nathan had told me that Madison and Angelica had known each other forever, and hated one another for just as long. It wasn’t hard to see why. Madison’s hands had balled up into fists at her side, and she took a big, slow intake of breath.

“We’re reasonably certain, yes,” Alexander replied shortly, cutting his wife off before she could unload on Angelica.

As the uncomfortable silence grew, Angelica’s strategy shifted.

“Zoey!” She ventured, turning to me instead. “Look at you. What a nice dress. You look lovely.”

“Thank you,” I said simply, not trusting any compliment from Angelica.

“Don’t you think Zoey looks nice, Madison?” Angelica asked, “Zoey could be a model, couldn’t she? She’s so tall, slim, and beautiful.”

Madison and I exchanged a look to acknowledge our mutual understanding that this was an Angelica trap of some type. Nevertheless, Madison nodded in polite agreement.

“Yes, Zoey always looks great,” she said.

“Do you miss your old figure, Madison?” Angelica asked, “Now that you’ve gone full mommy body, and have to take care of baby Al, I can only imagine it’s so hard to find time to work out and lose the baby weight. Maybe you should check out Weight Watchers.”

Madison had literally given birth just two months ago. Even if she’d gained a hundred pounds, it would be deeply inappropriate to mention it, but she was one of the few people that I’d ever seen who looked damn good right after a baby. She probably hadn’t put on an ounce.

I burst out laughing at the stupidity of that comment, and a breath later Nathan and Alexander joined in. Even Madison chuckled.

For once, Angelica looked lost and confused.

I actually felt a bit bad for her in that moment. Her efforts to divide and sow discord were so transparent and sad. She wanted nothing more than to assert her superiority over one of us, and she’d unwisely chosen Madison to unsuccessfully bully. The blow Angelica had suffered had been very public. The trial had gone down on the nightly news in front of the entire country, and Angelica had gone from being America’s princess to literally the most hated woman in America in a relative blink of an eye. It could not have been painless, even for her. Especially for her.

But this attempt to regain whatever status she lost by being a deplorable bitch was just pathetic. It might have worked if we were teenagers, but we weren’t immature enough to be manipulated. Sensing defeat and still wearing her wide-eyed look of powerless disbelief, Angelica just sort of drifted off from our group. I wasn’t sure where she was going, but I was very sure I didn’t care. Angelica had earned her pariah status. People in the crowd whispered and got out of her path, deliberately avoiding her eyes and turning their backs to her.

Our discussion on the mortification of Angelica was prevented by the arrival of yet another Alexander, Alexander Junior.

I’d only met Nathan’s uncle Alexander II two or three times over our six months together, but he was one of the most intimidating people I’d ever met. Tall and stone-faced, he seemed to be in a perpetually bad mood. Today was no exception.

“Oh good,” Alexander II said with a massive frown as he approached, “you’re all together.”

“Nice to see you too,” his son replied dryly, raising an eyebrow at his father’s odd, inept greeting.

What was with this family? Did they not learn manners at home?

Nathan did that little head lift thing that men sometimes use to greet one another when a smile, word, handshake, or hug are all too personal.

“Sorry,” Alexander II said, “but I’m fresh out of niceties. I’ve got some important family news. Ladies, could you give us a minute?”

Madison and I exchanged a glance and shrugged. Whatever important family news our men were about to receive would reach us soon enough. We could wait.

“Sure,” Madison said, grabbing baby Al back from her husband, “come on Zoey, let’s get you some champagne. I can’t drink any of it, but I can still enjoy it vicariously by watching you.”