Chapter Two
Adrienne’s POV
I moved fast, yanking Jonah behind me. The mug struck the doorframe and shattered across the floor.
My mother-in-law, Beverly, sat on the living room couch. She glared at me, her chest heaving with rage.
“Are you insane? You just threw scalding coffee at a child!”
“So what if I did? Maybe it’ll knock some sense into that good-for-nothing!” Beverly shot to her feet, her shrill voice filling the room. “Adrienne, what did you just tell Jonah? You told him he wasn’t going to intern at the company?”
I met her glare without saying a word.
My silence only made her angrier. She stormed over to me.
“Have you lost your mind? If Jonah doesn’t join the company and take over someday, are we supposed to hand it to some outsider? And you want him to paint for a living? Who makes a living doing that? I know what this is. You want Vance Group all to yourself!”
The sight of her made my skin crawl.
In my previous life, this so-called grandmother hadn’t shed a single tear after Jonah died. Instead, she had rushed to welcome Presley into our home.
“Jonah gets to live his own life, Beverly. He isn’t a tool for the Vance family to use.” I brushed her hand away. “Besides, you know perfectly well who built Vance Group into what it is today.”
That hit her where it hurt.
The company might have carried the Vance name, but when I married into the family, it had been a failing little business on the verge of shutting down.
I was the one who had built it back up, one client and one round of golf at a time.
Once the company became successful, I stepped out of the spotlight to protect Curtis’s pride and let him hold the title of CEO.
But I had always owned sixty percent of the company and controlled its most important clients and business connections.
Vance Group owed everything it had to me. Its future depended on me too.
That was why Beverly and Curtis had always resented me and plotted to take control.
They weren’t pushing Jonah into the company because they wanted to prepare him for the future. They wanted to use him as a puppet and slowly chip away at my power.
Just then, the front door opened, and Curtis walked in wearing a suit.
The moment he took in the standoff, he frowned and came over, putting on his calm, reasonable husband act.
“Adrienne, is that any way to speak to Mom?” He guided Beverly away from me as he spoke. “She only wants what’s best for Jonah. Painting is fine as a hobby, but who actually makes a living from it? You can’t keep spoiling him just because you can’t bear to be hard on him. You’re going to ruin his life.”
In my previous life, when Jonah was accused, Curtis had acted heartbroken as he convinced me to pay Presley off.
Less than a month after Jonah died, Curtis appeared in public with Presley on his arm and announced that he was taking over every project I had controlled at the company.
My stomach churned.
“Ruin his life?” I gave a bitter laugh and looked him straight in the eye. “Cut the act, Curtis. Do you really think I don’t know what you’re planning? You hate being nothing more than a figurehead at the company, so you want Jonah there to use as your weapon.”
Panic flashed across Curtis’s face, but he quickly forced himself to look calm.
“What the hell are you talking about? I’m Jonah’s father. Do you honestly think I would hurt my own son?”
“You’d better not.” My voice hardened. “Let me make one thing clear. Jonah gets to decide his own future. As long as I’m still breathing, no one will force him to do something he doesn’t want to do. Least of all you two.”
“She’s completely out of control! Listen to the way that crazy woman is talking to me!”
Beverly trembled with rage. She grabbed the couch for support and dropped onto it, her voice turning tearful.
“I’ve worked myself to the bone for this family my whole life, and now my own daughter-in-law insults me in my own home. Curtis, are you really going to stand there and let her treat me this way?”
Jonah had gone pale. He stepped forward to help Beverly.
“Grandma, please don’t…”
“Don’t touch her!” I snapped.
