Jealousy

Dora's fingers tightened around the spoon, its handle cold against her warm skin. She watched Xavier through narrowed eyes, her gaze sharp as a blade. The suspicion in her chest twisted like a snake, coiling tighter with each tender glance he cast toward Cathleen. Dora forced a smile, as brittle as glass. "Try this," she urged, her voice honeyed poison, sliding some eggplant onto Cathleen's plate with calculated grace.

Cathleen rose from her seat, an elegant dismissal. "I'm sorry, I am not hungry." Her words sliced the tension, and she turned away, hips swaying as she moved to the kitchen counter to prepare fresh orange juice. The whir of the juicer created a defiant buzz in the silence that followed.

"Are you insinuating that I poisoned this food?" Dora's voice cracked like a whip, her chair scraping against the floor as she shifted, the sound grating on nerves already frayed.

"Would you blame me?" Cathleen's retort came sharp, her back straight as she faced her stepmother, the juice