Chapter 6: The Threat
“Fine!” she shrieked, raising the vase high. “If I can’t have this day… none of you get to have anything!”
Elias stepped between us fast. “Colleen—put it down.”
“Why should I?” Her veil was slipping, her makeup streaked with tears and rage. “She took everything else! My inheritance, my reputation, now him—”
“Your reputation is what you made it,” I said, surprising myself. “I never wanted any of it. I just wanted my parents back.”
Colleen froze. For a second I thought she might drop it. Then her eyes hardened.
“You should have died that night,” she spat. “You should have burned with them.”
Before anyone could move, she swung the vase—not at me, not at Elias—but straight at the champagne pyramid.
Glass exploded. Hundreds of crystal glasses shattered at once, sparkling like rain, soaking the silk tablecloths, flooding the floor with champagne.
In the chaos, Colleen turned and ran.
---
