[Dinning Area]
The last plates were cleared quietly and the hum of conversation settled into a softer rhythm as tea and dessert replaced dinner.
The long table no longer felt formal, just full.
Margaret set her napkin aside first.
"Well," she said, glancing at Pauline, "I suppose this is the right mont."
Pauline nodded and gestured subtly to one of the staff.
Within monts, velvet-lined boxes began appearing on the side table one after another until it covered an entire table.
Evelyn blinked. "What is all this?"
"For you," Pauline said simply.
Margaret stood, motioning Evelyn closer. "These are gifts from the Reid family. So are ceremonial, so are personal. All of them belong to you now."
The first box opened to reveal a diamond bracelet, elegant and tiless, then earrings followed by a necklace and then another.
Patricia’s mouth fell open. "Okay—wow."
Lucas let out a low whistle. "You people don’t do anything halfway, do you?"
Ursula studied the display with interest, her brows lifting slightly. "The Reids are generous," she observed.
Margaret smiled, pleased. "We always have been. A daughter-in-law in this family is not welcod quietly, we spoil them thoroughly leaving no stone unturned.
Pauline stepped forward, opening the final box herself.
Inside lay the heirloom Margaret had spoken of earlier, the ruby necklace, deep red and unmistakably old.
Everyone gasped lightly, even Benjamin’s eyes lit up when he saw the heirloom. It had been years since he had seen it.
"This," Pauline said, her voice softer now, "will be given to you on the first night you enter the mansion as Mrs. Reid. It has passed from one matriarch to the next."
She closed the box gently and placed it in Evelyn’s hands.
The weight of it wasn’t just gold and stone, it was history.
Evelyn swallowed, genuinely overwheld. "Thank you," she said, her voice steady but emotional. "I don’t know what to say."
"You don’t have to," Pauline replied. "Just wear it when the ti cos."
Alexander had been quiet through all of this, watching Evelyn’s reactions, her surprise, her composure and the way she absorbed everything without shrinking from it.
Margaret turned her sharp gaze toward him next.
"And now," she said briskly, "the unpleasant part."
Alexander stiffened. "I don’t like the sound of that."
The elders exchanged a look—Margaret, Pauline, Ursula, even Gregory and lissa falling into the sa unspoken understanding.
"Traditionally," Ursula said mildly, "the bride and groom don’t see each other for a few days before the wedding."
Pauline nodded. "Three or four days. It’s ant to bring clarity and restraint."
Alexander frowned imdiately. "That is ridiculous."
Patricia grinned. "Says the man who hasn’t gone a day without seeing her since they made it official."
Lucas leaned back in his chair. "You will probably survive."
"I object," Alexander said flatly. "Strongly."
Evelyn hid a smile, reaching for his hand under the table before Margaret cleared her throat pointedly.
"You will be married for the rest of your life," Margaret said. "You can manage four days."
Alexander looked at Evelyn, clearly seeking support.
She squeezed his fingers gently. "It’s only a few days," she said. "And it will make the wedding feel real."
He sighed, defeated. "I don’t like any of you right now."
Patricia laughed. "Welco to family traditions."
The mood lightened again and conversation flowed easily but not everyone was relaxed.
Across the table, Benjamin and Gregory sat with polite expressions, exchanging only minimal words. No tension spoken aloud but it lingered in the pauses, in the way both n avoided deeper conversation..
And then there was Olivia.
She sat slightly apart now with her dessert untouched just like her food was earlier and her fingers tight around her cup.
She watched Evelyn with sothing dark and unsettled in her eyes. It was not just jealousy but sothing closer to loss.
She had never been welcod like this, never gifted like this, never claid.
Benjamin did buy her gifts but that was nothing in comparison to what Evelyn had received.
As laughter rose around the table but Olivia stared ahead with her jaw set and fury simring beneath a carefully neutral expression.
The wedding was days away and nothing felt settled at all.
....
[Olivia’s Room—Later that night]
Olivia sat alone in her room with the door shut and the lights dimd low.
The silence pressed in, thick and suffocating but she didn’t break it.
The mirror reflected a woman perfectly composed, hair smooth, posture elegant, face unreadable but the tightness in her jaw betrayed anything at all.
She exhaled slowly.
Anger burned in her chest, sharp and steady not the kind that threw objects or scread into pillows. That kind of anger was useless and weak.
But the anger she was feeling was the kind that thought.
Benjamin hadn’t followed her, not tonight, not after dinner and not after Pauline.
And Jack—
Her fingers curled slightly.
Jack was gone, her shield, her distraction, her leverage and the one piece on the board she could move without consequences.
Now she stood alone in a house that suddenly rembered who truly belonged to it.
Pauline had returned, Margaret was watching, Evelyn was being crowned and Benjamin was slipping further out of her reach.
Olivia rose from the vanity and walked to the window, staring down at the illuminated grounds of the mansion.
Everything looked the sa yet nothing was.
"They think I will fade quietly," she murmured to herself.
But she wouldn’t, they were wrong.
She had survived twenty years in a place that never truly wanted her. She had learned patience, timing and restraint. She had learned how powerful n worked and how they broke.
This wasn’t the ti for desperation, it was the ti for strategy.
Olivia reached for her phone.
She didn’t scroll, didn’t hesitate as she typed a number she hadn’t used in years.
The line rang once, then twice before soone answered it.
"Hello?"
Her lips curved, not with a smile but sothing colder.
"It’s ," Olivia said calmly. "I need you to do sothing for ."
....
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