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chapter fifty-one. the treasure of serena madre
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Thanksgiving began when the Pilgrims and Indians came together to share the bountiful harvest. On the Upper East Side, that tradition is upheld with a bountiful harvest of secrets, lies and scandals.
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"YOU'RE NOT SPENDING Thanksgiving with your family?" Riven was completely bewildered with the announcement that Victoria came with as she stopped by his condo. Very slowly she had been moving out of his home, taking a few things at a time that she was capable of lugging back to her new home at The Empire Hotel. It was becoming quite odd that while Riven had returned for the Thanksgiving holiday, he was home and Victoria no longer slept in the room just down the hall from him. It was due to be just him sleeping in the condo, the company of his friend disappearing and he was to be greeted to being lonely.
Victoria studied the parted lips and the wide eyes from the Huntington, she had always spent her Thanksgiving with her family, and it was becoming simply odd to imagine that this was due to be the first without them. There was to be no Humphrey traditions. But she knew she had to skip just one Humphrey Thanksgiving for the sake of her relationship with Nate. Now, he never asked for her to abandon her father and her siblings to venture down to Nassau County in Long Island, but Victoria knew that the Vanderbilts remained cold at the rekindling of her and Nate's relationship. What Victoria wanted was to be where she was the night she first met his family.
"I am trying to get back into the good graces of the Vanderbilts." Victoria told, and she believed it was a good enough excuse to leave her family on this particular Thanksgiving. The reason was because she knew that her father was due to be comforted not just by his girlfriend but by Eric, Lily and Serena. Well, it had been that way for the last couple Thanksgiving. "So. . .it's Thanksgiving there, this year."
Riven yet grinned as he rested against the countertop. "I'm happy you and Nate are back together." He had been waiting for the moment, and it happened sooner than he had ever thought. "It's going to be so weird coming back home during the weekends and you're not here."
Victoria and Riven were cemented for life, in a strictly platonic way. When she needed a shoulder to cry on, he was there. When he needed someone to rant to, she was there. They had become the bestest friends, and sometimes it was easy for Victoria to forget about the friendship she had with Vanessa. He showed what a friend could be like. Before she had the chance to express how much she was due to miss their late night movie nights, they were interrupted by a firm knock on the door. "Oh, was you expecting someone?" She quizzed.
