Chapter 2
I assumed there had been a mistake. "I confirmed two seats three weeks ago. Please add his meal."
"We didn't order for your son."
A server appeared with a hot dog wrapped in paper, grease already turning white along one edge. My mother barely glanced at it. "You should have packed him something. Children can be picky."
Liam whispered that he was not hungry. I knew that voice. It was the voice he used when he wanted to become smaller so adults would stop arguing.
I showed Grant the confirmation email on my phone. Two guests. Two meals. Liam's selection was clearly listed.
"The venue must have lost it," Grant said.
That tiny gesture told me everything. The exclusion had been deliberate. Grant wanted Liam to understand that winning did not make him equal to Grant's children. More importantly, he wanted to remind me that inside the Mercer family, he still decided who belonged.
May you like
Beneath my chair sat a blue folder containing four months of work. I was a forensic construction auditor. Companies hired me when projects failed and everyone involved began blaming everyone else. My father had quietly asked me to review the museum project after the insurance carrier questioned several cost increases.
Grant believed I was organizing documents before the annual board meeting. He did not know my preliminary report was more than two hundred pages long.
