Chapter 8 - THE DINNER TABLE TRAP
Genesis’s mansion glowed beneath white exterior lights.
Inside, the dining room looked staged for a magazine.
Gold-trimmed plates.
Crystal glasses.
Fresh flowers.
A roast placed at the center of the table.
Every important member of the Reed family was present.
No one asked Elena how she was.
Genesis seated her beside Jackson.
At the head of the table, a leather folder rested beside Genesis’s plate.
Dinner began with forced conversation.
Then Genesis stood.
“This family has endured unnecessary division,” she announced.
Several relatives nodded.
Genesis explained that Victor had supposedly promised her the apartment years earlier.
She claimed Elena was breaking his dying wish.
Elena looked around the table.
“That is not true.”
Genesis sighed as though dealing with a stubborn child.
“Your father understood loyalty.”
“My father left the apartment to me in his will.”
Jackson placed his hand on Elena’s knee beneath the table.
His fingers tightened.
Genesis opened the folder.
“Sign the deed. Transfer the investment funds. We can stop involving attorneys.”
Elena examined the papers.
The broad legal release was still included.
So was a new statement claiming Elena had voluntarily offered the apartment to Genesis before Victor’s death.
“I’m not signing this.”
Jackson squeezed her knee harder.
“You are embarrassing us.”
“I said no.”
Genesis’s face sharpened.
“You entered this family with nothing.”
“I had a career, a home, and a father who saved your company.”
The room went silent.
Genesis’s smile disappeared.
Jackson leaned close.
“You were warned not to discuss that.”
Aunt Marlene frowned.
“What is she talking about?”
Genesis ignored her.
She slid a pen across the table.
“Sign.”
Elena pushed it back.
“No.”
Jackson stood.
His chair crashed behind him.
“You selfish, ungrateful woman.”
Elena rose too.
“I am leaving.”
Jackson blocked her path.
Genesis spoke quietly.
“Make her understand.”
The words were not shouted.
They did not need to be.
Jackson grabbed Elena’s shoulder.
She pulled away.
His hand closed around the nearest dinner plate.
Aunt Marlene gasped.
“Jackson, put that down.”
May you like
But he was already raising it.
👉 As Elena turned toward the door, Jackson brought the plate down—and every lie Genesis had told the family shattered with it.
