I Signed Away Eight Million To Leave Him Chapter 02
After we got engaged, Graham practically worshipped the ground I walked on.
During finals week, I complained that my dorm was too noisy.
The next day, he rented an entire floor of a private library so I could study in peace.
He personally sketched a wave-shaped brooch, redrawing the design more than a dozen times before having a craftsman engrave the coordinates of our beach on the back.
When I had a fever that wouldn’t break, he canceled three events and sat by my bed all night, changing out my cold compresses.
When Beatrice urged him to meet an important client, he replied with a single sentence.
“No one is more important than my fiancée.”
How could I not love a Graham like that?
Back then, I believed we would get married, live somewhere near the sea, and maybe one day bring our own children to that swing.
He made no secret of his favoritism.
At private parties, polo matches, and club luncheons, he always showed up holding my hand.
If anyone asked about my background, he would slip an arm around my waist.
“She’s the future Mrs. Vale. What other introduction do you need?”
Once, Sloane held a glass of champagne and asked with a condescending smile if I even understood the rules of polo.
Graham took the match program right out of her hand and tossed it in the trash.
“Whether she understands it or not has no bearing on the game.”
“Unlike you. You’ve studied it for years, and not one horse has ever shown the slightest interest in you.”
Laughter rippled around us.
Sloane’s face went stiff, but Graham only lowered his head to smooth the hair the wind had blown across my face.
I thought he would always be on my side.
That changed at the family dinner celebrating our engagement, when Beatrice brought out a deep blue velvet box.
Inside was a pair of sapphire earrings.
“These are a Vale family heirloom.”
She fastened them on me herself. “They’re yours now.”
I was so stunned I barely knew how to thank her. Then I caught sight of Graham in the mirror.
For a brief, almost imperceptible moment, the smile on his face had vanished.
“Why bring these out now, Mother?”
“She’s your fiancée,” Beatrice said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “They were always going to be hers eventually.”
Graham stared at the earrings but said nothing more.
A few days later, we attended a dinner at a private club.
In the middle of the meal, a tipsy board member slapped Graham on the shoulder and laughed.
“A beautiful wife and an eight-million-dollar trust to boot. That marriage your mother arranged for you has to be the most expensive one in Palm Beach.”
The table fell silent.
The smile vanished from Graham’s face.
“What trust?”
The man realized his mistake and mumbled, “You didn’t know? Beatrice set it up for after you’re married. Once the marriage is official—”
Graham shoved his chair back so hard it screeched across the floor.
A glass tipped over, spilling red wine across the white tablecloth like a wound.
He turned to me, his eyes terrifyingly unfamiliar.
“So the ring, the engagement dinner, even those sapphires—it was all part of the plan?”
“No. I had no idea there was a trust.”
“Of course you didn’t. Not with eight million on the line.”
“Graham!”
Beatrice cut him off sharply and ushered me into the lounge beside the dining room.
My fingers shook as I unfastened the earrings.
“Please,” I said. “Tell him I knew nothing about this.”
Beatrice clasped my hands in hers.
“The trust was my decision alone. You did nothing wrong.”
Just then, the door opened.
Graham stood in the doorway.
Sloane and several other guests were right behind him.
He looked at my hand in Beatrice’s, then let out a cold laugh.
“What’s this? Celebrating a successful scheme?”
I stood and walked toward him.
“Please, let me explain—”
“Don’t.”
He looked at me, in front of all of them, and said, one deliberate word at a time,
“You are nothing more than my mother’s most successful charity project.”