“I spilled champagne on them on accident. I was airing them out.”

  A half-truth. It had been the original purpose of putting them on the floor. The real reason was so that I could take photographs of all the evidence with my phone.

  “Was that why you were on the floor?”

  “Chase, tell me if you knew.”

  “Perhaps you should elaborate.”

  I shook my head. I’d gotten all the information I needed, and if Chase was involved, then I needed to get out of there. Being stuck upstairs with him was not high on my priority list.

  “I’m going,” I said, pushing past him toward the door.

  He grabbed my shoulder. His eyes full of alarm. “What’s the rush? What’s going on? Just talk to me, Annie.”

  “You sabotaged the winery,” I snapped at him.

  Confusion remained on his face. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “The winery!” I said, my anger getting the better of me. “You and your family tried to ruin the new winery venture by the Wrights.”

  “I don’t even know what you’re talking about. Someone tried to sabotage the winery?”

  “Just go look at the paperwork,” I said, throwing my hand toward the papers on the floor.

  “Okay,” he said uncertainly. “Don’t leave yet.”

  He stepped over to the paperwork and read through everything that I’d found. His confusion turned to dismay. Then he shook his head and looked back up at me. “I had nothing to do with any of this. I had no idea, Annie. I was in Houston for most of when this went down, judging by the dates.”

  Which made sense, of course, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d been playing me all along.

  “And you just happened to come home in the middle of this?” I demanded.

  He shrugged. “I guess. I don’t do any work with my father’s real estate ventures. It’s Ashleigh who handles this kind of thing for him.”

  I froze there in the doorway to the office as the words hit me.

  Ashleigh.

  “Say that again.”

  He picked up a paper off of the ground and brought it over to me. “Ashleigh handles this kind of thing. My dad doesn’t involve himself with small, technical work.”

  “But it’s all signed by him.”

  “No,” he said, handing me the paperwork. “See.”

  I stared down at the paper. The signature there that said Arnold Sinclair. “I don’t see.”

  “That’s her forge. She got really good at it in high school. I could recognize it anywhere.”

  I stumbled back a step at the news. “Forged.”

  Now, that was damning.

  The rest of it had been legal. Despite how frustrating it had been—the second offer, the permit, the health inspection—all of that had been perfectly legal. But if Arnold Sinclair hadn’t actually been doing any of this…and Ashleigh had been forging his name … well, that was criminal.

  “Why…why would she do this?” I asked him. My shock registered on my face.

  He shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. Why does my sister do anything?”

  That I definitely didn’t have an answer to.

  But Ashleigh of all people?

  She was dating Julian. They’d been together for two years. She had to want him to succeed. It was illogical.

  Fuck. Julian!

  I dashed out of the office without a word to Chase. He called my name as I sprinted down the stairs at a pace that would have normally been terrifying in four-inch heels, but adrenaline propelled me forward. My eyes darted around the living room, but there was no sign of Julian.

  I texted him.

  Where are you?

  Out by the pool. Why?

  Don’t move.

  I braced against the cold as I darted toward the back exit. Chase caught up with me as I raced outside.

  “Annie, what are you doing?” he asked.

  “Righting a wrong.”

  “You’re going to freeze.”

  He stripped out of his jacket and offered it to me. I deliberated and then decided to take it. It was too cold not to.

  “Fine,” I said, pulling it around my shoulders.

  I found Julian standing with Ashleigh next to an outdoor heater. With a deep breath, I sent him the pictures I’d taken and then approached. He was peering down at his phone when I stopped in front of him.

  His brow was furrowed as he read.

  “Annie!” Ashleigh gushed. “Where have you and Chase been?”

  She asked it in that cutesy voice of hers. And of course, it probably did look bad that we’d disappeared at his party, and I showed back up in his jacket, but I was so beyond caring.

  “Why did you do it?” I asked her. I still clutched her forged signature in my hand.

  “Do what?” she asked, batting her eyelashes.

  “What is this that you sent me, Annie?” Julian said. He glanced up at me. His eyes were wide. He knew exactly what I’d sent him.

  “I stumbled across that in the Sinclair’s study.”

  Julian’s face paled. “Really?”

  “What is it, baby?” Ashleigh asked.

  She leaned against him to try to see his phone, but he turned it away from her.

  Oh yeah, he knew now.

  “Why did you do it?” I repeated to Ashleigh.

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “Wait…how is Ashleigh involved?” Julian asked.

  “Ashleigh handles her father’s affairs, don’t you?” I held up the piece of paper. “And that’s the signature you forged, isn’t it?”

  Ashleigh blustered, “Annie, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  But she didn’t say it the way that Chase had with any sincerity. She said it like she’d been caught and was trying to figure out a way to get out of this.

  Julian blinked. “You tried to sabotage the winery?”

  “No!” Ashleigh cried.

  “All those times that I complained to you about how hard it was to get anything done at the winery. When I told you that I wanted to know who was doing this to us. I even suggested it was a ghost, and you latched on to that so quickly,” he said, as if putting all the pieces together. “You wanted it to be a ghost. That way, it wasn’t you all along.”

  Ashleigh looked like a cornered dog. I didn’t know if she was going to roll over or bite.

  “It was Daddy!” she said, tears bursting from her eyes, as if on cue. “That’s his signature. He wanted to do it.”

  Chase jumped in. “Ashleigh, we both know that’s not Dad’s signature.”

  “Why would you do this?” Julian asked. He looked half like he wanted to comfort her and half-horrified.

  “I didn’t. I swear!” she gushed.

  Julian shook his head. “Tell me the truth.”

  He looked ready to shake her.

  She wiped her eyes. Thank God for waterproof mascara. A hiccup and then, “I…I just wanted you to work for Daddy.”

  Julian’s face was a mask of shock. “You…what?”

  “You didn’t want to work for Wright,” she told him, reaching out for his hand. “You told me that so many times. You weren’t valued there. You weren’t your brother. I wanted you to have the winery when it was your idea! Then you brought your brother on, and suddenly, it wasn’t even your winery anymore. It was his. You were pushed to the side. I wanted you to have your own thing. Where you weren’t connected to your brother.”

  “Where I was connected to you,” he said hollowly. “Beholden to you.”

  “No, never!” she cried, reaching for him again.

  He stepped back. “No, I think I understand perfectly, Ashleigh.”

  Real tears fell this time when she suddenly saw what was happening. “Please, Julian. Please, I love you.”

  “You took the venture I loved and cared about, the venture I invited my brother to be a part of, and then you tried to destroy it.”

  “That’s not what happened!”

  But it was.

  “And you did it for selfish reasons. Because you’re selfish.” Julian shook his head and took another step back. “We’re done.”

  “No,” Ashleigh gasped, falling to her knees before him and clutching him. “Julian, no, please. Please don’t say that. I love you. I only had your own interests at heart.”

  It was painful to watch. Because she had deluded herself enough to believe the words coming out of her mouth.

  Julian tugged back, releasing her grip on him. “I think you believe that, but it’s not true.”

  Then he turned his back on her and walked out of the party. Chase knelt down next to his sister, but I didn’t have an ounce of pity for her. Not after the lengths she’d gone to try to hurt people I cared about.

  I followed Julian out of the party and touched his arm. “Hey. Are you going to be okay?”

  He looked up at the stars and shrugged. “I don’t know. Two years. Two years with her and then…” He splayed out his hands.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to lay this in your lap, but…”

  “No, I’m glad you did. I need to tell Jordan and Hollin.”

  I nodded. “I understand. That’s a good idea.”

  “How are you getting home?” he asked.

  “Uh…”

  “I’ll drive you,” he said, pointing out his SUV down the block.

  “I can catch an Uber. It’s fine.”

  “Just get in, Annie. Jordan would kill me if you didn’t get home safe.”

  “Are you…are you going to tell him I was here?” I asked as we walked over to his car.

  Julian blew out a breath. “You don’t want him to know that you figured this out?”

  “I just…I’m not ready to deal with him.”

  Julian nodded, the weight of his latest breakup heavy on him. “I understand that. I can’t imagine talking to Ashleigh anytime soon.” He opened the passenger door for me. “Guess we’ll both have to deal.”

  And wasn’t that the damn truth?

  38

  Jordan

  “Jordan!” a voice called from the front door.

  I pushed away from my desk in my office and strode into the living room, surprised to find my brother had let himself in. “Hey, what’s going on?”

  “Why didn’t you answer your goddamn phone?”

  I touched my pockets, realizing I didn’t have the thing on me. I didn’t even know where it was. I’d been distracting myself with work. It was easier than trying to learn to relax.

  “I don’t have it on me. What’s wrong?”

  “Well, I already talked to Hollin, but we have a problem.”

  I sighed and headed into the kitchen. I pulled out two beers and dropped one on the counter for him. “Not sure I can have any more problems.”

  Julian didn’t complain. He took the beer and chugged the entire thing. I narrowed my eyes at my brother. He liked to drink, but I’d never seen him chug before.

  He dropped the empty beer down. “Can I have another?”

  Now, I was concerned. I grabbed another one for him. “Fuck.”

  “Yeah.”

  He took another fortifying drink and then sank into a seat at the island. “Ashleigh and I broke up.”

  This didn’t seem like a problem to me, but Julian had dated her for two years. It had to hurt.

  “What happened? I thought you were happy.”

  Julian pushed his phone across the table to me. I picked it up and saw it was open to an image folder. I clicked on the first one, which was a map of our winery. Pretty normal. I flipped to the next picture—the permit. The next—the offer. And then I saw what he’d clearly meant for me to see. Arnold Sinclair’s signature on these pages.

  Something went cold inside me. “What the fuck is all this, Julian?”

  “Exactly what it looks like. The place is haunted by the Sinclairs.”

  “Why would Arnold Sinclair give a fuck about our winery?”

  “Oh, he doesn’t. Those are forged signatures.” Julian took another long drink. “Ashleigh forged the signatures.”

  I was silent. My mind whirring through all the possibilities of why his girlfriend would want to ruin the winery. But I came up with nothing.

  “Is she out of her mind?” I asked.

  “She wanted me to work for her family. She thought you were keeping me down or some other bullshit excuse that she’d invented. She wanted me to be beholden to her, and so she did this shit.”

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I ground out. “Man, this is…”

  “Terrible,” Julian agreed.

  “Manipulative and conniving.”

  “Yep.”

  “How’d you find all of this out?” I asked, passing his phone back.

  Julian opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked away, as if he didn’t want to answer that or he didn’t have a good enough answer.

  “Julian?”

  “Fuck, I’m not supposed to tell you.”

  “What? Why?”

  Julian sighed as if he knew it’d come to this. “Annie found them. Though I wasn’t supposed to say that.”

  “Annie?” I asked slowly, drawing her name out in disbelief. “Wait, was she at the Sinclair party tonight?”

  He nodded. “Not with Chase,” he added hastily.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Ashleigh brought her.”

  “So she’d end up with Chase.”

  “Just shut up,” Julian growled. “That’s not what happened, and if you’d get your head out of your ass, you’d realize that she just saved our fucking asses here. Now, we can go after the Sinclairs and get them to stop this shit. Because I’m ninety percent sure that she leaked the show with Campbell and called the police.”

  It wasn’t often that Julian raised his voice. Let alone to me. But I could see that he was sincere. What mattered was the winery situation. I could process what Annie had been doing there later. Julian needed me, much like I’d needed him the night before.

  “You’re right,” I said evenly. “She probably did both of those things.” I paused as something else came to me.

  “What?” Julian asked.

  “Ashleigh was the one who told me that Annie had gone over to Chase’s. She told me at the party. That’s right before we fought.”

  Julian sighed heavily. “Fuck.”

  “She really is sabotaging everything.”

  “Yeah,” he said hollowly.

  “I’ll get in contact with our attorney tomorrow. Have a cease-and-desist sent to the Sinclairs and threaten them with a lawsuit for falsified paperwork.”

  Julian deflated at the words. As if he’d been waiting for the moment where I would take control and he wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

  He dropped his head onto the counter. “What the fuck is wrong with me? How could I date someone for two years that does this shit?”

  “This has nothing to do with you.”

  “You never liked her,” Julian said.

  “That doesn’t matter.”

  “Everyone hated her.”

  “You didn’t,” I reminded him. “Why…did you like her?”

  He shrugged, looking back up at me. I wanted to build a wall around my little brother and make it so no one could ever hurt him again. But there was nothing I could do about this, and I just had to watch him suffer. At least I would get to use my attorney against the scheming bitch.

  “She was different with me,” Julian said, as if that were an explanation. “Just realizing that wasn’t enough.”

  “I’m sorry, man. This weekend sucks.”

  “Understatement.” He finished off the second beer. “What are you going to do about Annie?”

  “She didn’t even want you to tell me she went to the party. Do you think I have much of a chance?”

  “I think she’s hurting, but yes, unlike me and Ashleigh, you have a chance.”

  “Then I’m going to win her back.”

  Julian’s smile brightened the room. “Damn right you are.”

  39

  Annie

  Jordan didn’t contact me over the weekend. A part of me was happy to have the time to myself before I went back to the hospital Monday morning. I was thankful for long shifts, so I could forget about this messed up weekend.

  The other part of me…had been hoping he’d reach out. I didn’t want to talk to him, but I wanted him to want to talk to me. Which sounded ridiculous, but there was no way I was making the first move. I’d thrown that ring at him. Ball was in his court.

  Cézanne was in the lounge when I dropped my stuff off in the morning. “What are you doing here?”

  “I moved over to a pediatric ER for an extra week. I thought it would help me in family practice,” she said as she finished off a coffee. “I heard you had an eventful weekend.”

  “Blah,” I said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Well, let me tell you about my weekend,” she gushed.

  I sat down to finish my own coffee. “By all means.”

  “I might or might not have hooked up with Gerome.”

  My eyes widened. “Gerome, Gerome? From the soccer team?”

  “The one. We met at a family reunion. Our families don’t really get along, and we’re not related, but it’s like his cousin and my cousin got married. That kind of thing. A cousin of a cousin married his cousin of a cousin of a cousin.” She waved her hand. “We kind of got into it, and then one thing led to another.”

  “Oh my God! That’s amazing. I can’t believe this.”

  “Me either, honestly. I always thought he was just like his family, and he always thought I was just like mine. Turns out…nope.”

  I squealed with Cézanne over her new boy, excited that at least someone had gotten some this weekend.

  Then a man walked into the lounge.

  “Uh, I have a delivery for Annie Donoghue.”

  “That’s me,” I said in confusion.

  He held up a giant vase of a dozen red roses. “Here you go. Enjoy!”

  I took them from him, and then he walked away.

  “Shit, girl. Look at that!” Cézanne said.

  I set them down on the counter and took the card out with a trembling hand.

  * * *

  You’re all I’m thinking about.

 

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