The private lounge beside the ballroom had always existed for monts exactly like this.
It was not large, but it was quiet in a way the main hall could never be. Thick doors separated it from the constant movent of the banquet, allowing only faint fragnts of the music to drift through the walls. A pair of tall windows overlooked the winter-dark city beyond the Rochefort estate, and a smaller sitting area had been arranged with several low chairs and a long sofa facing a marble table set with untouched water glasses.
From inside the lounge, the banquet felt distant.
The evening had not ended yet, but the room offered a place where the family could step away from the center of attention for a few minutes before returning.
Vincent Rochefort sat near the window, one hand resting lightly on the arm of the chair as he watched the faint reflections of light move across the glass. Amanda sat beside him, her posture relaxed but attentive, as she always was during public events.
Across the room, Arianne stood near the small table, her phone held loosely in one hand while she finished reading a ssage.
Franz had taken a seat on the sofa beside the twins.
Lily was kneeling on the cushion beside him while Leo sat cross-legged with the tablet balanced against his knees, the stylus already moving slowly across the screen as he wrote sothing only he could see.
For several monts, the room remained quiet.
The distant music from the ballroom slipped faintly through the walls, the low cello rhythm rising and falling beneath the violin’s higher notes.
Lily suddenly sat upright.
Her eyes moved between Arianne and Franz with suspicious concentration.
"Wait," she said.
Everyone in the room glanced toward her.
Lily pointed a finger directly at Franz.
"You did not dance, Uncle."
Franz blinked once.
"What?"
"You did not dance with Aunt Aria," Lily repeated, turning her finger slightly so that it pointed between him and Arianne now. "Not even once."
Leo wrote sothing quickly on the tablet.
Lily leaned down to read it and then looked up again.
"He says that is true."
Franz glanced at the screen briefly before looking back at Lily.
"You were watching that closely?"
"Yes," Lily said without hesitation.
Leo lifted the tablet slightly and wrote another line.
Lily read it aloud.
"Not one ti."
Franz let out a quiet breath that sounded very close to a laugh.
Across the room, Arianne lowered her phone and placed it on the table, already aware that this conversation would not end quickly.
Lily folded her arms.
"Daddy always danced with Mommy."
The words were delivered with the kind of certainty only children carried.
The room went quiet.
Amanda’s smile softened. "Yes," she said quietly. "He did."
Lily looked at her. "You rember, Grandma?"
"I rember everything, sweetheart."
Leo nodded once and wrote another ssage.
Lily leaned over the tablet again.
"At every party," she read.
Lily did not rember everything. The parties blurred together after a while—the sa music, the sa dresses, the sa people smiling. But she rembered this: her mother reaching for her father’s hand, and him pretending to resist even though he was already smiling. She rembered the way they looked at each other. She wanted that for Aunt Arianne and Uncle Franz too. Even if they did not know it yet.
The twins had been very young then, but so monts refused to fade even after ti had blurred everything else. They rembered their father standing beside their mother at the edge of a dance floor while music filled the room. They rembered Layla adjusting Alexander’s sleeve before pulling him toward the center of the floor while he laughed and tried to pretend he had not expected it.
To them, that had always been the natural order of things.
Parties ant music.
Music ant dancing.
And dancing ant parents standing together.
Lily narrowed her eyes again.
"Did you fight?"
Franz looked genuinely startled.
"What?"
Leo wrote quickly again.
Lily read the words.
"Before the party."
Franz leaned back slightly against the sofa.
"No," he said. "We did not fight."
Lily remained unconvinced.
"Then why did you not dance?"
Franz glanced toward Arianne.
Arianne had not moved from where she stood near the table. Her expression remained calm, but a slight change in her posture suggested she was listening closely.
Franz returned his attention to Lily.
"If I stand too close to her in public tonight," he said carefully, "people will start asking questions."
Lily frowned.
"Why?"
Franz hesitated for a mont before answering.
"Because most of the people in that room know as soone else."
Lily frowned. "But you’re you."
Franz glanced at Arianne. "It’s... complicated."
Lily considered this.
"Is it complicated when you’re here? With us?" she asked after a long silence.
Franz didn’t answer right away. "No. Here it’s simple."
Leo looked up.
Franz continued.
"They know as Noah Hart."
Lily blinked.
"The actor?"
"Yes."
Leo wrote slowly across the tablet.
He lifted it.
Lily read the ssage aloud.
"Very famous."
Franz nodded slightly.
"Enough that people pay attention when they see him sowhere."
Lily looked back toward the ballroom doors.
"But they already saw you."
"They saw Franz Rochefort," he explained.
Lily’s forehead wrinkled in confusion.
"That is you."
"Yes," Franz said patiently. "But they do not always connect the two."
Leo wrote another short line.
Lily leaned over the tablet.
"If they see you standing with her," she read, "they will ask why."
Franz nodded.
"And if they ask too many questions, people will start looking for answers."
Lily crossed her arms again.
"That is a bad rule."
Leo wrote sothing quickly and turned the tablet toward her.
She read the words with clear agreent.
"Very bad rule."
Amanda laughed softly from the chair near the window.
Vincent said nothing, though the corner of his mouth curled slightly.
Lily thought about the explanation for another mont.
Her face brightened suddenly.
"Oh."
Franz felt the change imdiately.
"Oh?" he repeated cautiously.
Lily slid off the sofa and stood in the center of the room.
"Then dance here."
The room went quiet for a second.
Franz blinked again.
"Here?"
"Yes."
Leo began writing rapidly on the tablet.
Lily leaned down and read the ssage before turning it outward for the room to see.
"No reporters," she read proudly.
She pointed toward the closed lounge doors.
"No caras."
Franz looked toward Arianne again.
Arianne raised one eyebrow slightly.
From the window, Vincent’s voice: "She has a point."
Everyone turned.
Vincent hadn’t moved from his chair. But he was watching them now.
"The room outside has rules," he said quietly. "This room doesn’t."
Amanda rested her hand against her mouth, clearly trying not to laugh again.
Lily grabbed Franz’s sleeve.
"Co on."
Franz allowed himself to be pulled a step forward before stopping again.
"Lily."
She looked up.
"If we do this," he said carefully, "you understand it’s not... performance. Right? It’s not for show."
Lily tilted her head. "I know."
"It’s just us."
"Us is good."
"You are very determined," he said.
"Yes." Lily’s smile widened.
Leo wrote another line.
Lily read it quickly.
"Now."
Franz exhaled quietly.
He looked toward Arianne once more.
For a mont, she did not move. She set her phone down on the marble table and walked toward the center of the room.
She stopped in front of Franz.
"I don’t dance," she said quietly.
"I know."
"Not well."
"Neither do I."
Arianne almost smiled. "Why are we doing this?"
He t her eyes. "Because she asked."
A pause. Then, softer, he added: "And because I wanted to."
The faint music from the ballroom drifted through the walls again.
Franz extended his hand. Arianne placed her hand in his without hesitation.
Amanda’s voice, gentle: "Alexander used to say the sa thing."
Arianne glanced toward her.
"About not dancing," Amanda added. "And then Layla would pull him onto the floor anyway."
Vincent nodded slowly. "Every ti."
Arianne had not planned this. She never planned things like this. But watching Lily’s face—seeing the simple certainty that this was how families should be—she understood that so monts could not be managed or controlled. They could only be t. She t Franz’s hand. She did not think about why.
The dance that followed was simple.
There was no audience except the family in the room, and no performance to it beyond the slow movent guided by the distant rhythm of the quartet outside.
Franz placed his free hand lightly at Arianne’s waist.
Arianne rested her other hand against his shoulder.
They moved together slowly across the carpet, the motion steady and unhurried.
Lily whispered to Leo. "See?"
Leo typed.
Lily read it. "Told you."
Leo watched with complete focus.
Lily clasped her hands together with satisfaction.
Leo wrote sothing and turned the tablet toward her.
Lily read it quietly.
"Much better."
Amanda laughed again.
Vincent watched the small dance with an expression that had grown unexpectedly thoughtful.
For a mont, he was not in this room.
Years earlier, during one of the earlier Rochefort anniversary banquets, Alexander had stood in the center of the ballroom with Layla in almost the sa position. The music had been louder then, the room fuller, but the motion had been similar.
Layla had been the one who insisted on dancing.
Alexander had tried to pretend he had not expected it.
The mory passed quickly.
Vincent returned his attention to the present.
Franz and Arianne continued moving slowly across the room while the distant music moved into another piece.
Neither of them spoke.
They did not need to.
When the rhythm changed again, Franz slowed and stopped. Arianne stepped back slightly.
Lily clapped. Leo held up the tablet.
Lily read it aloud. "Good."
Through the window, the lights of the ballroom still shone brightly beyond the lounge doors.
Amanda stood, walked to Vincent, and rested a hand on his shoulder.
"They’re alright," she said quietly.
Vincent covered her hand with his. "Yes. They are."
Guests continued moving beneath the chandeliers, the music rising again for another dance.
Inside the quieter room, the family stood together for a mont longer.
And for the first ti that evening, Franz and Arianne were no longer standing apart.
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