Chapter 2 - The Folder Vanessa Wanted Signed
The ballroom slowly came back to life.
Guests whispered behind champagne glasses. Some pretended to examine the flowers. Others openly watched Vanessa, waiting to see whether the disgraced former fiancée of Adrian Morello would finally leave.
She didn't.
Instead, Vanessa reached for the folder she had dropped beside the table.
Frank noticed.
“Leave it,” he said.
Her hand froze.
Adrian looked at his grandfather.
“What’s in there?”
“Nothing that concerns you,” Vanessa answered quickly.
Frank gave a dry laugh.
“That is exactly what people say when something concerns everyone.”
Emily stood quietly near the dessert table.
She wanted no part of this.
She had come to the Morello estate because she had been hired to prepare a dessert display for the evening. She was supposed to bake, decorate, collect her payment, and go home.
Instead, she had a room full of billionaires staring at her because she had thrown a pie into a woman’s face.
Adrian walked toward the folder.
Vanessa stepped in front of him.
“Adrian, please. This is family business.”
“You stopped being family when the engagement ended.”
Her face tightened.
Frank slowly reached for the folder.
“I told Vanessa I would not sign this tonight.”
Emily glanced at the papers.
She saw only one line before Frank closed them.
“Management authority.”
Something about the words bothered her.
Vanessa noticed Emily looking.
“You.”
Emily blinked.
“Me?”
“You seem very interested in things that don't concern you.”
Emily wiped cream from her wrist.
“I was interested in getting paid.”
A few guests quietly laughed.
Vanessa’s face hardened.
Adrian almost smiled.
Frank did smile.
Then Frank looked at Emily.
“Did Vanessa say anything to you before the incident?”
Emily hesitated.
“Yes.”
“What?”
“She told me to change the dessert table.”
“To what?”
“She wanted the wedding cake display removed.”
Adrian frowned.
“There is no wedding.”
Emily looked at Vanessa.
“That’s what I thought.”
Frank’s expression changed.
Because suddenly the folder made sense.
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Vanessa wasn't trying to recreate a wedding.
She was trying to create the appearance that she still belonged inside the Morello family.
