part 2
PART 2
I curled my fingers around the champagne flute and lifted it slowly.
Grant relaxed first.
I saw it in the way his shoulders dropped.
In the way he exhaled through his nose.
In the way his hand moved from the papers to the back of Sienna’s chair, as if victory had already entered the room and sat down beside him.
Sienna watched me with bright, hungry eyes.
She wanted more than my signature.
She wanted to watch me surrender.
That was the difference between her and Grant.
Grant wanted control.
Sienna wanted spectacle.
I raised the glass halfway to my lips.
Then I stopped.
“Before I sign anything,” I said, “I want to know what exactly I’m giving away.”
Grant’s jaw tightened.
“You know exactly what.”
“Then explain it.”
His expression darkened.
Sienna stepped in before he could snap.
“It’s simple, Evelyn.”
Her tone was calm, almost pitying.
“You’ll keep enough to live comfortably.”
Grant added, “And I take over operating control of Whitmore Vineyards and the estate board.”
My grip tightened on the stem.
Whitmore Vineyards had been my mother’s family legacy, not his.
The board belonged to me by inheritance.
Grant only had authority because I trusted him after my father’s stroke.
That trust, I now understood, had been the first thing he stole.
“And Lily’s trust?” I asked.
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
“Our daughter’s future is protected.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Silence.
Sienna glanced at him.
That tiny glance told me more than any confession could have.
Lily’s trust fund was in the papers too.
Not fully transferred.
Not openly.
Just enough hidden language to let Grant “temporarily manage” it during the divorce.
That was when I knew how deep this had gone.
They were not only trying to erase me.
They were trying to feed on my daughter’s future while pretending they were protecting it.
Under the table, Cyrus moved again.
He stretched up against my knee as if sensing my pulse change.
Grant mistook my silence for weakness.
“You dragged this marriage out long enough.”
His voice sharpened.
“You embarrassed me at the foundation dinner.”
I stared at him.
“You brought your mistress to my foundation dinner.”
“She is carrying my son.”
The words hit the room like a slap.
Sienna rested one hand on her stomach and lifted her chin.
There it was.
The real performance.
Not just an affair.
An heir.
A replacement.
A public rewriting of my life.
“I see,” I said.
Grant slid the pen closer to me.
“Then stop pretending this can be saved.”
He thought I was grieving.
What I was actually doing was calculating distance.
The silver tray beside me held a second clean flute that the butler had set down earlier.
Sienna had forgotten it.
Grant had never noticed it.
Both of them forgot one essential truth.
The people who survive betrayal are often the quietest people in the room.
Because they are busy learning where to place their hands when the room catches fire.
I let my gaze drop.
Then I turned my head slightly toward Cyrus.
He leapt from the chair onto the edge of the sideboard with impossible elegance.
Sienna laughed.
“Even your cat wants to escape this marriage.”
Both of them looked at him.
That was all I needed.
In one smooth motion, I lowered the poisoned glass to my lap, reached to the silver tray, and lifted the untouched flute in its place.
When I brought it up again, the bubbles looked the same.
The only difference was death was no longer inside the glass.
Sienna turned back just in time to see me holding it.
Her smile returned.
Grant tapped the papers once.
“No more delays.”
I looked straight at both of them and lifted the clean glass in a mock toast.
Then I set it down untouched and pushed the papers away.
“No.”
Grant’s face changed instantly.
Sienna’s did too.
Not because I refused.
Because she suddenly realized I had moved the glass.
And she did not know whether I knew.
Good.
May you like
I wanted her afraid before the rest of the night destroyed her.
Read PART 3 👉 Sienna has realized the glass may have been switched, but Grant still has no idea the cat collar camera has captured every move, every vial, and every lie.
