Josie
Twenty-nine
Alaric’s name hangs in the air, and it takes a second to catch up to what Evie is saying.
I don’t look at him right away, so I feel the reaction before I see it. The room seems to tilt, every line of attention pulling toward where he stands. When I turn his way, his shoulders have gone rigid, and his expression has emptied in a way that makes him look less triumphant than blindsided.
“You are the only one who did not come to me with expectations,” Evie continues. “You did not position yourself. You did not assume. You did not treat this family as something to be divided.”
From where I stand, my brother Ric looks like a man who just realized the floor beneath everyone else has dropped away, leaving him stranded in the middle.
“You showed restraint,” Evie says. “You showed respect for what this family represents, rather than what it could provide.”
No one interrupts this time. The earlier voices have disappeared.
“As such,” she says, “you will receive the entirety of my estate.”
The meaning lands all at once now, not in fragments.
I feel Sera pull in a breath beside me, her shoulder no longer pressing into mine.
Across the room, I catch the way Dylan’s posture changes, the confidence that carried him earlier draining into something harder, more rigid, while Scott turns toward him, their earlier alignment shifting into something uncertain.
“All assets,” Evie continues, “including the vineyard, associated properties, investments, and holdings, will transfer to you in full.”
On the screen, Evie remains unchanged as she finishes, her gaze still fixed forward. There’s no closing remark, no softening of what she’s said. The image lingers for a brief second after her last word, and then the screen goes dark.
No one moves.
The room holds a silence that feels stretched to the limits with outrage and disagreement. I keep my arms folded, my weight steady where I stand, aware of Sera beside me but little else. There’s a relentless buzzing inside my head. No one looks at each other. No one speaks.
Everything we believed and hoped for has collapsed into something unrecognizable, and for a moment, it feels like no one knows where to place themselves inside it.
Then Franklin steps forward, his hand coming up in a tight, frustrated gesture as he looks toward Graham. “That’s not enforceable,” he says. “There were commitments made. You know there were.” He pushes forward. “You don’t just ignore that because of a recording.”
Eleanor moves in beside him, aligning them in a way that tightens the space further.
“There were expectations set,” she adds, the words placed carefully as if precision will carry more weight.
“Those don’t disappear because of how she chose to phrase this.
” Her gaze shifts toward the screen and then back to Graham, her composure holding even as the tension edges through it.
Around them, the room begins to move again, sharp, overlapping reactions that push forward without waiting for space.
“This isn’t right,” Dylan says from behind me.
“He doesn’t just get everything,” Scott follows, louder.
I glance across the room as everyone’s attention sharpens, aimed at Alaric. The distance that formed around him earlier sharpens now, filled with the weight of every expectation that just collapsed. No one steps toward him. No one speaks to him directly.
“This was set up,” Matthew pushes in, the accusation clear now. “You knew about this.”
Sera’s arm presses against mine, and I feel the tension in it as I keep my gaze forward, watching how quickly the room reshapes itself around a new center.
“You’ll find that Evie’s written will supports the wishes she’s expressed in the video,” Graham says. “Any challenge to the validity of the will must be brought through the appropriate legal channels.”
The words don’t stop the reactions immediately, but eventually the noise dies down.
“You may contest the will,” Graham continues. “That process will proceed through probate court.”
This concept is no longer abstract but immediate, something that places a structure around the chaos that’s started to build.
“As executor,” Graham adds, “I will continue to administer the estate in accordance with the existing will.” He pauses just long enough for the words to sink in. “No distribution of assets will occur until the probate process is complete.”
“You knew,” Dylan snarls at my brother.
“You had to know this was coming,” Eleanor insists.
Ric doesn’t respond, at least not in a way that carries. From where I stand, he seems to remain still, his posture unchanged, but the lack of movement reads differently now. It doesn’t hold him in place. It isolates him.
The vineyard, the house, everything tied to it—it all sits on the other side of a line we couldn’t see when we walked in. And it’s not just that we’re losing where we live. It’s that none of us were ever the ones she meant to keep at the center of this family.
Graham steps forward again, reclaiming the front of the room with the controlled authority he’s held from the start.
“This concludes the reading of the will,” he says.
“If you have questions regarding the probate process, you may direct them to my office.” He doesn’t elaborate beyond that, doesn’t open the floor for discussion, and the lack of invitation lands as clearly as everything else he’s said.
Franklin and his kids leave with promises to sue.
Eleanor is out the door right after them with her children.
A few minutes later, Ginny and Addie wave goodbye with smiles on their faces. They must feel a level of satisfaction to know they quit a game years ago that they were never going to win.
Dad pulls Ric aside and tells him not to get too worried. Things are bound to sort themselves out. Graham nods.
“We don’t even—” Sera starts, her voice low, the words catching before she finishes them.
She doesn’t need to. I understand her anyway, the shape of what she’s trying to say sitting fully formed between us. We have nothing. And while Ric has always been our advocate, this reallocation of power shifts everything.
I suppose nothing about this has resolved. The angry looks on everyone’s faces virtually assure that. For now it’s only changed shape. But regardless, it seems Sera and I have some decisions to make.