Oliver Was Forced to Serve Dinner While Everyone Else Sat Down — Then His Father Found the Place Card Proving His Seat Had Been Removed on Purpose
Chapter 5 — The Person Most Upset Was Preston Vale
Victoria expected James to remain the angriest person in the room.
Then Preston Vale stood.
“I need to understand something.”
Victoria looked toward him.
“Of course.”
“You removed the seat of a child involved in the program…”
He pointed toward Oliver.
“…to make room for my son because you thought that would make me more likely to donate?”
Victoria’s face fell.
“That isn’t exactly how I would describe it.”
Preston shook his head.
“It is exactly what you just described.”
His son looked uncomfortable.
“Dad, I can move.”
Preston put a hand on his shoulder.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Then he looked toward Oliver.
“Neither did he.”
Preston had grown up in a family where donor dinners and formal events were common.
He understood seating changes.
He understood last-minute complications.
But he did not understand humiliating a child in order to impress him.
“Do you know why I was considering this donation?” he asked.
Victoria looked toward him.
“Because of the reading program.”
“Correct.”
“Because children are supposed to be the point.”
Then he pointed toward the bread basket.
“If the first solution to an inconvenience is to remove one of those children from the table, what exactly am I funding?”
No one spoke.
Victoria looked shaken.
Her attempt to impress Preston had done the opposite.
