Chapter 2 - The Poisoned Phone Call
The rideshare dropped me off at my late father’s modest brick cottage in Arlington—a sanctuary of oak trees and quiet memories, miles away from the gilded cage of Georgetown. My mother, Clara, met me at the door with open arms and no questions asked. She held me as I shed the first and last tears I would ever waste on Thane.
At two o’clock in the morning, my phone lit up on the nightstand. The caller ID read Evangeline.
I let it ring three times before sliding my thumb across the screen. I didn't say a word.
"Eloan," Evangeline’s voice came through, eerie and stripped of its usual dismissive theatricality. There was no anger, no screeching. Instead, it was dripping with a frantic, slick urgency. "Let’s not allow a silly disagreement over lunch to ruin something so important. You are a married woman now. Your place is beside your husband."
I leaned back against the headboard, my voice flat. "Is Calliope still too exhausted to hold a fork, Evangeline? Or did you call me at two in the morning to personally ask for my forgiveness?"
A sharp intake of breath echoed through the receiver. "Don't test me, girl. You left your personal documents in Thane’s study. The ones regarding your late father’s commercial property on the waterfront. We need your signature on a routine spousal consent form by nine tomorrow morning."
My blood ran cold, but my mind sharpened into diamonds.
My father had died two years ago, leaving my mother and me a single, highly valuable plot of historic waterfront land in Alexandria. I had kept those deeds locked in my private briefcase—a briefcase I had brought into Thane's home three days ago.
"Spousal consent for what, Evangeline?" I asked, my voice dropping an octave.
"It’s just standard procedure for Thane’s corporate restructuring!" she snapped, her mask slipping. "You married into the Vance family! Your assets are family assets now! If you bring your pathetic pride back here tomorrow and sign the papers, I will overlook your disgusting behavior at the dinner table. If you don't..."
"If I don't?" I echoed.
"You will destroy Thane," she whispered coldly. "And I will make sure your mother suffers the consequences in court."
She hung up.
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I sat in the dark, the pieces of the puzzle falling into place with terrifying speed. Thane’s sudden, rushing proposal after only six months of dating. Evangeline’s insistence on a fast wedding without a prenuptial agreement. Calliope’s public humiliation of me at lunch—it wasn't just snobbery. It was a calculated attempt to break my spirit, to make me feel small, worthless, and eager to please them so I would blindly sign whatever paper they put under my pen.
They weren't wealthy socialites floating on an endless sea of money. They were parasites drowning in debt, and they had married Thane to my name to harvest my father’s legacy.
