Chapter 9 - The West Gate
I did not go outside.
I called security.
Then I called Brielle.
She answered on the first ring.
“Open it.”
“No.”
“I need to get measurements.”
“You need bolt cutters for measurements?”
She looked directly into the camera above the gate.
“Stop spying on me.”
“You’re standing on my property line with bolt cutters.”
“It’s a gate.”
“My gate.”
Behind me, Owen had gone very still.
Brielle could not see him through the camera angle.
“Delaney,” she said, drawing out my name, “I am exhausted. I have not slept. I have a wedding in two days. If you force me to lose everything because you’re having some rich-girl power trip, I will never forgive you.”
I almost admired the sentence.
She had broken into my email, forged my authorization, manipulated our parents, lied to her fiancé, cancelled a paid backup venue, sent vendors to my home, and now stood outside with bolt cutters.
And somehow I was the aggressor.
“You should leave before security arrives.”
She laughed. “Dad has authority.”
“Dad’s authority was based on a lie. It has been revoked.”
“You can’t revoke it after vendors relied on it.”
“Actually, I can revoke permission to enter my own home anytime I want.”
She slammed the bolt cutters against the gate.
Owen flinched.
“Brielle,” he said.
Silence.
She froze outside.
Then slowly looked toward the camera.
“Owen?”
He stepped beside me so the porch camera caught his face.
Her expression changed.
Not embarrassment.
Not guilt.
Calculation.
“You went there?” she asked.
“I found the binder.”
Her mouth opened.
He continued. “I found the hotel contract. The money. The notes.”
“Owen, listen—”
“Did you forge Delaney’s signature?”
“You don’t understand what happened.”
“Yes or no?”
She gripped the cutters with both hands.
“I was trying to save our wedding.”
“That is not an answer.”
Her eyes filled instantly.
“I did everything for us.”
“You cancelled a venue we had already paid for.”
“Because this was better!”
Her voice cracked across the intercom.
Owen closed his eyes.
Security arrived behind her.
Brielle turned, saw the vehicle, and suddenly dropped the cutters.
“Fine,” she said. “Fine. Everybody wins. Delaney gets to humiliate me. You get to act righteous.”
She pointed at the house.
“But the wedding is still happening Thursday.”
“No,” Owen said.
Her head snapped toward him.
“What?”
He swallowed.
May you like
“I said no.”
For the first time since this began, Brielle looked afraid.
