“Vanessa, stop! Apologize to my mother!”
“Oh, relax! It’s just a piece of paper!”
“You just humiliated my mother!”
“Your mother has millions! She could’ve bought us anything!”
“I refuse to apologize for expecting a decent wedding present,” she added.
I watched my son’s expression change.
I wasn’t going to argue. I’d already learned what I needed to know.
Across the ballroom, my assistant Claire was waiting. I gave her a signal.
A moment later, she approached with a dark leather folder.
“Everything you requested,” she said.
Vanessa stared at it.
“What is that?”
I rested the folder against the wooden box.
“That letter explained what I transferred this morning.”
Her smile vanished.
Ethan looked at me.
“Transferred WHAT?”
I opened the folder, glanced at the document on top, and met my son’s eyes.
“Before I answer that, Ethan, there’s something you need to know about the woman you just married.”
He stared at me.
“Mom, what are you talking about?”
I turned the folder so he could see the second page.
It was an email printed on company stationery, dated eleven days before the wedding.
The subject line read:
Willow Point Property — Proposed Sale Consultation.
Vanessa stopped breathing for a moment.
I could see it.
Her eyes moved across the page, and the color drained from her cheeks.
“Where did you get that?”
Ethan looked at her.
