Chapter 2 - The Mother-in-Law's Smirk
The silence in the private dining room was agonizingly heavy, broken only by the soft dripping of red wine onto the white tablecloth.
Sitting just a few feet away, sipping from her own crystal glass, was Vivian.
Garrett’s sixty-year-old mother wore a string of massive, flawless pearls and an expensive designer blazer. Instead of rushing to help her daughter-in-law or scolding her son for his violent outburst, Vivian leaned back in her chair. A cruel, profoundly satisfied smile spread across her wrinkled face.
She loved watching Claire get put in her place.
"You embarrassed him, Claire," Vivian said, her voice dripping with toxic, condescending arrogance. "He asked you for a simple favor, and you chose to be stubborn. A good wife doesn't humiliate her husband in front of his business partners."
The "simple favor" Vivian was referring to was a demand for five hundred thousand dollars.
For the past two hours, Garrett and his mother had cornered Claire in this soundproof room. They had presented her with a stack of legal documents, demanding she liquidate her late father’s trust fund to cover Garrett’s massive, hidden investment debts.
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They thought Claire was weak. They thought she was just a submissive, quiet trophy wife who would happily drain her own blood to protect her husband’s high-society reputation.
👉 Vivian thought she was the mastermind of the evening, but Claire’s slow, deliberate response was about to unnerve her completely.
