The Favorite Girl

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, death, self-harm, mental illness, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and gender discrimination.

Bradley tells Demi not to ask questions and guides her to the Orchid Room to meet Dr. Ian Ivory and Mrs. Daphne Ivory. After Bradley leaves the room, Daphne gives Demi a cup of peony tea. Ian asks questions, and Demi replies that she was born in India, moved to Tennessee when she was very young, and has no living family members. Ian tells her about the nondisclosure agreement (NDA) that she must sign and to speak more softly. After she assures them that she needs the job and “will do anything [they] ask” (61), they offer her the housekeeping position. She accepts but peels her nail polish off nervously, and Ian yells for Bradley, telling him to pick it up. Demi apologizes, Ian goes out to the garden in silent shoes like hers and Jax’s, and Daphne tells Demi that she must learn the rules.

Bradley takes Demi to an office that has a wall made of “off-white objects” (66), which later are revealed to be fragments of human bone.