Derek's easy smile faltered for the first time all morning.
Because he was about to find out exactly who he'd just snapped his fingers at.
And humiliating me in this room was about to become the single most expensive mistake of his entire career.
Chapter 2 - The Name Behind the Glasses
For three full seconds, nobody moved.
"Is there a problem?" Derek asked, irritation cutting through his voice. "We're done here."
The old man didn't answer right away. Instead, he looked at me — not the way a hired notary looks at a stranger who just lost her marriage, not with pity, not with awkward sympathy. He looked at me the way family looks at family when they've spent years learning to speak without saying anything at all.
My chest tightened. I'd known this moment might come eventually. I just hadn't expected it here, with Vanessa's perfume still hanging in the air and a black card sitting on the table like a prize I was supposed to be grateful for.
