should have been and set my phone beside the facedown place card.
“Turn it over,” I said.
Shawn’s eyes moved to the card.
Eleanor answered before he could.
“This is neither the time nor the place.”
“It became the place when you removed my chair.”
Miranda slowly reached across the table.
Her fingers trembled as she turned over the card.
VANESSA HUGHES.
The name had been written in the same gold calligraphy as every other guest’s.
The room went silent.
I looked at Shawn.
“How long did you expect me to stand at the bar before she arrived?”
“It isn’t what you think.”
I almost smiled.
People used that sentence when the truth was exactly what it appeared to be.
Eleanor lifted her chin.
“Vanessa was invited for a private family conversation later in the evening.
Your childish departure has created this spectacle.”
“My departure did not put her name at your table.”
“Lower your voice.”
“My voice is lower than yours.”
Shawn stepped closer.
“Anna, restore the cards, call the villa, and stop performing for an audience.”
“You should be careful when accusing someone of performing,” I said.
“Your family has been living on a stage for years.”
His expression changed.
He knew I had seen the accounts.
Before he could answer, the restaurant doors opened.
Vanessa entered wearing a cream coat over a fitted blue dress.
One hand held the handle of a small suitcase.
The other rested protectively over the curve of her stomach.
She looked tired rather than triumphant.
Her eyes moved from Shawn to Eleanor, then to the place card bearing her name.
“You told me Anna would be gone before I arrived,” she said.
Shawn’s face lost its color.
Eleanor stood so quickly that her chair scraped the floor.
“Vanessa, this is not how we discussed handling the situation.”
Vanessa gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“You discussed seating me at dinner.
You sent me the villa address.
You said the announcement would happen tonight.”
Every person at the table turned toward Eleanor.
She did not deny it.
Instead, she looked at me with the cold irritation of a hostess whose carefully arranged centerpiece had been disturbed.
“My son has made a mistake,” she said.
“But there is a child involved now.
We were attempting to create an orderly transition.”
“An orderly transition,” I repeated.
Shawn reached for my arm.
I stepped back before he could touch me.
“Anna, we can talk privately.”
“We had five years to talk privately.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“You said she knew.”
“I was going to tell her.”
“You said the divorce papers were already prepared.”
“They are now,” I said.
I opened the folder Rachel had sent to my phone and placed the first document on the table.
It was the temporary court order protecting Elite Affairs and restricting Shawn’s access to our accounts.
He scanned the first page, then looked up sharply.
“You filed against me?”
“I protected my company.”
“You froze our money while we’re in another country?”
“No.
Your family exhausted its own money.
I stopped you from taking mine.”
The restaurant manager remained beside the table, silent but attentive.
So did two servers near the wall.
The humiliation Shawn had arranged for me now had witnesses he could not control.
Eleanor picked up the
