Chapter 2 - The Woman on the Porch
She was tall. Put-together in a way that looked effortless and expensive. She stepped over the threshold and looked around the living room like she'd stood in it before and hadn't been impressed then either.
Ethan didn't tense up. He didn't even blink. He just gave her that same easy smile he'd been giving me since I was a teenager.
"This is Rebecca," he said. "None of this happens without her."
I looked at her. She looked at me. And whatever I expected to see in her face — smugness, victory, some sharp little thrill — wasn't there.
It was closer to pity.
"You have no idea what's happening right now," she said. Quiet. Not cruel. Just certain.
"Then tell me." My voice came out steadier than my hands.
Ethan set something on the dining table. An envelope — thick, cream-colored, the kind of paper that costs money and means lawyers.
"Your grandmother's house," he said. "The place she left you when she passed. I've been the silent co-signer on that property since before I proposed. One signature tonight, and the whole thing transfers over."
The room seemed to lean sideways.
Fifteen years. The waiting. The saving. The "I want it perfect." All of it wound tight and aimed at this exact minute, in this exact room.
But Rebecca hadn't reached for the envelope. She was staring at Ethan with an expression I couldn't quite name.
"Ethan," she said slowly. "She doesn't know about the other document. Does she."
May you like
He went completely still.
And that's when I understood that whatever my husband had planned for tonight, the woman he'd brought to help him do it was not entirely on his team.
