Chapter 28 #2
I kill the engine and sit for a second with my palms pressed to the steering wheel.
The place looks more like a fortified compound than my grandmother’s home.
Cars line the circular drive. Expensive ones.
Unfamiliar ones. The kind lawyers drive when they get paid too much to tell someone powerful what they want to hear.
I step out into the cool night air with my breath puffing white. The gravel crunches under my shoes as I walk up the front steps. Even before I open the door, I hear voices. Low. Urgent. The clipped rhythm of people trying to keep up with a hurricane.
I push the door open.
Evelyn is in the sitting room, pacing like a general. Three lawyers sit scattered around her with laptops open and stacks of documents spread everywhere.
Evie’s voice slices through the air. “They think they are coming for me. They think they are coming for this family.” She gestures sharply, rings flashing under the chandelier. “They do not know who they are dealing with.”
All the cousins are here too. Dylan and his brothers, Logan and Matthew.
Their sister Kaitlyn. My cousin Scott Porter and his brothers, Mike, Eric, and Joey.
They stand silent and stiff against the walls like soldiers waiting for orders.
I can see the hunger in Dylan’s eyes. The calculation in Logan’s.
The dull anticipation in the others’. They would raze the vines tomorrow if she handed them the keys.
Evie turns at the sound of my footsteps. “Good. You are finally here.” She gestures with a flick of her wrist. “We are moving to the dining room. Now.”
I glance toward the lawyers, and one gives me a look that’s somewhere between run and save us.
Evelyn snaps her fingers. “Come on. There’s work to do.”
“Work?” I echo under my breath.
As if she’s not standing in the middle of a legal disaster she created. She’s dragging our entire family into her mess, as if it’s reasonable. To her, it seems this is business as usual.
I follow her down the hall. The house smells like meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and fresh bread. Normally, the place feels lived in. Tonight, it seems like a stage set, a battleground polished until you can’t see the cracks beneath.
I catch sight of the dining table as we approach. Plates set. Wine poured. Two chairs at the far end conspicuously absent—Addie’s and Ginny’s. A double punishment disguised as tradition despite not being invited.
Evie stops at the head of the table and grips the back of her seat like it’s a throne. She meets my eyes. “Sit down,” she says. “We are about to begin.”
The moment I sit, the room shifts. The doors close behind me with a soft click.
My sisters are lined up along the side of the table, trying and failing to look relaxed.
Sera twists her napkin. Josie sits stiffly, with white knuckles around her glass.
She keeps looking at the empty spots like she wants Ginny and Addie to walk in anyway.
Across the room, the cousins stand in a tense line—Dylan with his chin high, Logan with his arms crossed, Matthew with his jaw clenched.
Kaitlyn watches all of us with sharp eyes, and Scott is probably already imagining the vines bulldozed and replaced with marijuana.
His brothers just look ready to nod at anything Evie demands.
She waits until we’re quiet. She lifts her glass, though not for a toast. More like someone holding evidence.
“This family is under attack,” she says. “The Paradise family has been trying to destroy us for generations, and now, they are using the Crown to do it.”
Josie swallows. Sera doesn’t seem to breathe.
I brace myself for what’s coming.
Evie turns to Dylan first. “You. I need you front and center. You’re my voice. My attack dog. You will counter every accusation publicly. No hesitation. No weakness. Not one inch given.”
Dylan nods, and power flickers behind his eyes. He’s twenty-six, and I have no doubt Evie told him the vineyard could be his if he performs well enough. His brothers Logan and Matthew lean in, listening like this is their moment.
She pivots to Josie. “You’ll handle the political outreach. We’re major donors. Call in favors. Remind every person in office who they owe. Use that smile of yours. That is why God gave it to you.”
Josie manages a quick grin, but it lacks warmth. She looks like she’s holding a live wire. She glances at me for half a second, fear in her eyes.
Then her gaze lands on me. Her face hardens. “You stay quiet.”
My jaw tightens, but I hold my position. I can feel my sisters and cousins staring at me and waiting.
“You’re not speaking publicly,” Evelyn continues. “You’ll operate behind the scenes. Apply pressure where it matters. Whisper in the right ears. Use that brain of yours. Psychology. Influence. Whatever it is you do.”
I lift a brow. “You mean my doctorate in psychology?”
Her eyes narrow. “Don’t get cute.”
I sit back and let silence fill the space between us. She hates when I don’t react. I let it stretch.
Evie slaps her palm against the table. The wine glasses jump. “This is a fight to the death,” she says. “And if any of you think you can sit this out, think again.”
Sera flinches. Josie’s jaw trembles before she locks it down. The cousins puff their chests out with barely disguised eagerness.
Evie lifts her chin. “Anyone not in lockstep with me, anyone who embarrasses this family, will be cut out of my will. Permanently.” She lets the word hang. “No money. No land. No protection. And I will come after you legally if I must.”
There’s a beat of stunned silence.
I look around the table.
My sisters look terrified. Small. Cornered. And I know the cousins are watching them like vultures, waiting for their share.
Evie keeps talking, delivering orders like a dictator cementing her rule, but I barely hear the rest. I’m watching my sisters and the way they fold under her voice as she plays them like pieces on a board. I see the cousins stiffen with anticipation. I see the lawyers shrinking into shadows.
I can see exactly who my grandmother is and what she’s capable of.
And even though every instinct tells me to stay out of this and walk away and return to the quiet in my practice and the separate life I so desperately want, I also know I can’t leave my sisters alone with her.
I breathe in slowly. If Evie wants a war, she’ll get one. But I won’t be fighting for her.
I’ll be fighting for them.