Chapter 71 For the Lutzes, she was the secret that should remain hidden in the temple.
João Pedro's words made Katherine look at him again. Under the dim light of the car dashboard, his eyes looked like wells of deep darkness, so intense that she felt, for a brief second, as if he were reading the most hidden pages of her mind.
He was acting strangely. At times he was cold as ice, at others he showed meticulous consideration for her wishes—like that perfectly prepared Matcha tea. Katherine looked away and took a long sip of her drink, chewing the soft pudding. She decided it wasn't worth wasting brainpower trying to decipher João Pedro's contradictions.
The eve of Patriarch Arbex's birthday was an event in itself. The official banquet the following day would feature over a hundred tables and the city's entire elite, but the night before was reserved for the family and historical allies to discuss the final preparations.
Upon entering the main building, Katherine was met with an unprecedented scene: the mansion had never been so full. There were about forty people scattered throughout the monumental hall. In addition to the East and West Wing families, distant cousins and relatives by marriage filled the space.
Anastasia stood up with a radiant smile as soon as she saw them. “You're finally here!” she exclaimed, waving for them to come closer.
João Pedro frowned, about to say something to Katherine, but Grandfather Arbex immediately summoned him to the circle of patriarchs. He could only watch helplessly as Octavio pulled Katherine by the sleeve toward the group of younger people.
“Let's go over there, Katherine. Where the people our age are,” said Octavio.
She found herself surrounded by eight pairs of curious eyes—three girls and five boys. Some were in college, others in high school. Octavio introduced them as cousins, but the atmosphere was not exactly welcoming. No one spoke to Katherine; they talked among themselves, forming a closed circle that deliberately left her on the periphery.
“Your parents should be here any minute,” Octavio said, grabbing a snack.
Katherine frowned. “I thought this was an intimate gathering of the Arbex family.”
“It's an old tradition,” he explained. “Our grandfathers were inseparable, so the two families always get together the night before.” But now that I think about it... I've never seen you at any of these gatherings before. The Lutzes always came, but you didn't.
Katherine glanced at him sideways, her expression indecipherable and evasive. She knew exactly why she had never been invited: to the Lutzes, she was the secret that should remain hidden in the temple.
Suddenly, one of the girls in the group exclaimed, looking at her cell phone: “Guys, did you see? The monthly test results just came out! What a disaster... I only got 570. My mom is going to kill me!”
Immediately, all the young people grabbed their devices, frantically typing in their registration numbers between sighs and exclamations.
It was at that moment that a movement at the door caught Katherine's attention. The air in the room seemed to cool a few degrees. Daniel Lutz, Rosana, and Nísia Oliveira had just entered, displaying the family's usual mask of perfection.
The stage was set: on one side, the academic results that would define the young people's social status that night; on the other, the inevitable reunion with the family that had tried to erase it.
The Lutz family's entrance was choreographed to project perfection. Daniel and Rosana led the way, with Nísia serving as a frame as she held her stepfather's arm, while Heitor followed close behind. Daniel, a master in the art of appearances, distributed polite greetings to the elders, but the family unity broke down as soon as Heitor spotted Katherine.
The boy let go of his father's hand and ran, unceremoniously passing Octavio, to nestle beside his sister. “Sis, I can finally see you again!” he exclaimed with genuine joy that silenced the room for a brief, uncomfortable moment.
Daniel Lutz looked away from the two of them. For a second, a glimmer of indecipherable emotion crossed his eyes, but he quickly stifled the feeling, returning to laugh with William and the other patriarchs. Rosana, sensing the heavy atmosphere, gave Nísia an encouraging pat on the hand. “Don't be afraid, go sit with the young people.”
Nísia, who had been treated like an outcast at school after the theft scandal, walked cautiously. As she approached the group, she was greeted with looks of superiority. Those cousins and heirs eyed her with the same disdain they had shown Katherine earlier, but Nísia swallowed her pride and found a place to sit, while Rosana joined Anastasia to discuss the details of her pregnancy.
The silence was broken by a cry of euphoria. A boy sitting in front of Katherine slapped his thigh and raised his cell phone, beaming. “I got 630 points! I jumped 80 points!” He began to hum, attracting the attention of all the adults.
“630 points? Not bad,” commented one of the older adults. “What's your ranking?” “99th place overall!” boasted the boy. “The teacher said this test was harder than the actual college entrance exam. Anyone who scores 600 now is a genius!”
The announcement sparked a round of questioning among the parents. All eyes soon fell on Dandara and Octavio. Octavio's face turned pale; he tried to become invisible, while his two cousins prayed that no one would ask for their registration numbers.
Dandara, sensing that it was her moment to shine, spoke up with a condescending smile. “My science grades were a little below expectations, but the core subjects made up for it. I scored 685 points.”
A sigh of admiration swept through the room. Sophia, Dandara's mother, tried to act modest, although her eyes sparkled with pride.
“It's no big deal... she usually scores around 700. But since she wants to go to Cambridge, this score is just the beginning.”
Rosana, wanting to reinsert Nísia into the high-level conversation, commented: “I hear Cambridge is strict. They look at individual scores in the exact sciences. How did Dandara do in math and physics?”
Dandara replied with surgical precision: “Math: 141, third highest individual score. Physics: 99, eighth place. Chemistry: 88, sixth place. Overall, I ranked fifth in the entire school.”
The revelation was met with reverential silence followed by restrained applause. In that ecosystem, Dandara had just crowned herself queen of the night. Nísia looked down, feeling the weight of her own academic insignificance at that moment, while Katherine remained motionless, her cup of Matcha tea almost empty, watching the celebration of a podium that she knew was about to suffer an earthquake.