Gloria nodded but said nothing. She looked at ease.
Martha served breakfast, and they dined together.
Angela glanced at Gloria and said with a hesitant look, "Gloria, are you still mad at me for what happened on Karen's birthday?"
Gloria looked up at her and replied, "How so? If I were mad, I wouldn't have come back and dined with you."
Angela was speechless.
The way Gloria talked was disagreeable, and she didn't know how to go on with the conversation.
She took a breath and said in a helpless tone, "What happened the other day was not as you think. I prepared the gift not to compete with you. We're cousins rather than rivals. There were people sowing discord between us and turning it into a misunderstanding. That jade bracelet was not my gift. Someone switched it."
Gloria's face wa
