Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Sera 

I was still in the sitting room when the front doors slammed open hard enough to rattle the glass. Victoria Vance did not wait for the staff to announce her. 

She never did when I was the one she wanted. She swept in with Evelyn Cross right behind her, both of them already talking at full volume like they owned every inch of the house and I was the only thing standing in the way of a clean exit.

Victoria’s voice hit me first. “There she is. Still sitting around like she belongs here. Did you think that little stunt at breakfast would keep you in this family, Seraphina? Did you actually believe my son would fall for whatever game you are playing now?”

I wondered if Julian talked to them about it. That’s out of question anyway. Right now I'm in deep trouble. 

Evelyn stayed half a step behind her, smiling that soft public smile that never reached her eyes. She carried a small designer bag like she had already started packing things that were not hers. I stood up slowly. 

Victoria kept coming until she was close enough that I could smell her perfume. “You manipulated him. Do not even try to deny it. You sat there this morning and somehow talked Julian into giving this farce another thirty days. As if three years of freeloading was not enough. You were only accepted into this family because his grandfather forced the marriage. Everyone knows it. You were the convenient signature on a piece of paper so the company shares stayed where they belonged. Nothing more. And now you think you can delay the inevitable by playing the devoted little wife?”

Evelyn tilted her head. “It is almost impressive how shameless you are. Most people in your position would have taken the money and left with whatever dignity they had left. But you? You are still here, still clinging, still acting like the name Vance means something when it is attached to you.”

I looked at Victoria first. “I did not manipulate anyone. He signed the amendment himself.”

Victoria’s laugh was sharp. “Of course he signed it. Men get soft when a woman starts talking about beds and second chances. You saw an opening and you took it. Classic. A parasite never changes its methods. You came from nothing. Your mother worked in some lab that went under. Your father was a nobody who left. And somehow you ended up here, wearing my family’s name and eating at my family’s table. Shameless. That is what you are. A shameless parasite who saw a rich man with a dying grandfather and decided she would climb.”

Evelyn stepped closer and set the bag down on the side table with a soft thud. “We are here for the jewels. The ones that belong to the Vance women. The ones you have no right to keep now that the divorce is moving forward. Hand them over before this gets more embarrassing than it already is.”

I stayed where I was. “No.”

Victoria’s eyes narrowed. “Excuse me?”

“No. You do not get access to the family safe. Not today. Not while I am still legally married to Julian and still listed as the lady of this house.”

Evelyn actually laughed. “You cannot be serious. You think corporate policy is going to protect you? You think a title that was never real gives you the right to keep what does not belong to you?”

I kept my voice even. “Vance Global bylaws and the residential trust documents are clear. Until the divorce is finalized and the paperwork is filed with the court, the current wife retains authority over the primary residence and its secured assets. That includes the family safe. You need Julian’s written authorization or a court order. You have neither. So no. You do not get the jewels. You do not get to strip this house while I am still standing in it.”

Victoria’s face flushed. “You little…..”

“I am not finished,” I said. “You can insult my background all you want. You can call me a parasite until your voice gives out. But you do not get to walk into this house and take what the legal documents still place under my temporary authority. If you want the safe opened, call Julian. Or call the lawyers. Until then, the door stays closed.”

Evelyn’s smile finally cracked. She reached for a delicate glass vase on the side table, one of the older family pieces that had been there longer than I had. She lifted it, turned it once in her hands, and then let it slip. 

The glass hit the floor and shattered into a dozen sharp pieces that skittered across the hardwood.

“Oh no,” Evelyn said, voice dripping false concern. 

“Look what you made me do, Seraphina. You really should be more careful about leaving valuable things where clumsy people can reach them.”

Victoria seized on it immediately. “That vase has been in this family for generations. And now it is destroyed because you cannot control yourself. Typical. Everything you touch turns into a mess.”

I took my phone out of my pocket, unlocked it, and turned the screen so both of them could see the recording that was still running.

“I started this the second you walked through the door,” I said. “Every word. Every insult. And that little accident with the vase. The timestamp is clear. So is the audio. If either of you wants to keep claiming I dropped it or somehow forced your hand, we can play it back for Julian. Or for the lawyers. Your choice.”

Evelyn’s face went pale for half a second before the mask slid back into place. Victoria looked like she wanted to snatch the phone out of my hand. Neither of them moved.

That was when the front door opened again. Julian’s voice carried down the hall before he even reached the sitting room.

“Mother? What is going on? I got three messages from the staff in ten minutes.”

He stepped into the doorway and stopped. His eyes moved from the shattered glass on the floor to Evelyn’s rigid posture to his mother’s flushed face and finally to me standing there with the phone still in my hand. He did not immediately cross the room to Evelyn. 

Victoria recovered first. “Julian. Perfect timing. Your wife has decided she owns this house and everything in it. She is refusing to return the family jewels. She is recording us like some kind of criminal. And she somehow talked you into this ridiculous thirty-day nonsense this morning. I want her out. Now.”

Evelyn moved toward him, voice soft and wounded. “She is making everything so difficult, Julian. We only came to collect what belongs to the family before the announcement goes public. And then she started with the legal threats and the phone. I accidentally knocked the vase and she is trying to make it look like I did it on purpose.”

Julian’s gaze stayed on me for a long beat. Something in his expression had shifted. Not softness or warmth. Just a quiet kind of attention I had never seen directed at me before. He looked at the broken glass again. Then at the phone in my hand.

“You recorded them,” he said. It was not a question.

“Yes.”

“And you refused them the safe.”

“Yes. The trust documents and the bylaws are still in effect until the divorce is final. I told them that.”

Victoria stepped between us. “Do not listen to her. She is twisting everything. She has always been like this. A quiet little climber who waits for the right moment to dig in her claws. She was never one of us. Your grandfather forced that marriage and we all tolerated it. That is over now. Make her sign. Make her leave.”

Julian still did not move to Evelyn’s side. He looked at his mother, then back at me. 

She turned on me fully. “You think you are clever. You think a recording and a few corporate clauses make you untouchable. You are nothing. You have always been nothing. And I will not stand here and watch you humiliate this family for one more second.”

Her hand came up fast. The slap landed hard across my cheek, sharp enough that my head turned with the force of it. The sound cracked through the room. My skin burned. I tasted blood where my teeth had cut the inside of my lip.

Julian took one step forward. “Mother…”

I did not let him finish because I knew fully well he’ll not defend me anyway. 

I straightened, met his eyes over his mother’s shoulder, and kept my voice steady even though my face was still stinging.

“Day One begins tonight, husband. Are you coming upstairs or not?”