"You are nothing. Do you understand me? Nothing. This is not your world, and it never will be. Eleanor's voice grew louder, more theatrical, as she played to her captive audience.
You are wretched and pathetic, and you do not deserve to breathe the same air as decent people like us. Harrison nodded sagely, shaking his head in performative disgust. Security has completely failed us tonight. How do people like this keep getting into places where they so obviously do not belong? Guests began to close in, forming a loose, predatory circle.
They whispered and pointed, their comments landing like small, sharp stones. "Look at her trying to act all sophisticated," one woman sneered. "The absolute nerve of some people," another man added, shaking his head. After her hours-long ordeal outside, Alani was parched. She tried to approach the bar for a simple glass of water, but the bartender's eyes flicked immediately to Eleanor, seeking permission.
Eleanor's response was swift and merciless. She shook her head with theatrical violence and called out loud enough for the entire room to hear, "No drinks for the help. She doesn't deserve even a drop of water from our glasses." Carter found this utterly hilarious. He staggered over, his expensive suit rumpled, and pointed at Alani with his half-empty glass.
"Hey, if you really want to make yourself useful," he slurred. "Why don't you go find the real staff and help them serve real people? At least then you'd be doing a job you're actually qualified for." Blair clapped her hands in delight, as if her brother had just uttered a profound truth. "Yes, finally, a role she might actually be good at."
The crowd roared its approval, treating Carter's barbarism like a comedy routine. When Alani tried to find a place to sit, her feet screaming in protest from standing outside for 2 hours. Eleanor physically blocked her path. "Those chairs are for our guests," she said, her eyes raking over Alani with unconcealed revulsion. "Not for whatever you are."
So Alani was forced to stand in a corner of the grand ballroom, the subject of an entire party's scorn. She became their living entertainment. Guests would walk by and deliver drive-by insults just loud enough for her to hear. Look at how she's trying to pretend she belongs here. The audacity is just breathtaking.
Someone should call social services. This is just sad. I cannot believe security let this happen. For what felt like an eternity, Alani endured this systematic public stripping of her humanity. She stood there being degraded by people whose entire fortunes she knew, were teetering on the edge of a cliff.