The Night Before the Winemaking Contest, Floating Comments Exposed His Plan Chapter 01

The Night Before the Winemaking Contest, Floating Comments Exposed His Plan Chapter 01

In Briarvale wine country, only a Champion Vintner, one born with the verdant touch, could marry the valley’s biggest magnate.

So for ten years, while Wesley Ashford and I kept our relationship a secret, I competed for the title every single time.

I was the most gifted vintner in Briarvale. It didn’t matter. Every year, the night before judging, my golden muscadine vines died, withering down to nothing, like something had poisoned them in the dark.

The eleventh year, I planted another vine. That was when the comments appeared.

[Laurel is so delusional lmao. She really thinks growing some grapes is gonna land her an Ashford?]

[I’m screaming. Wesley doesn’t even love her.]

[At least the people around her have sense. They’ve been sabotaging her vines every year.]

Something cold locked around my ribs.

More kept coming.

[The first few years it was her own mom. Laurel was burning up with a fever and her mom went out with a broom and smashed every single seedling. Then her little brother started dumping bleach in the soil.]

[Wesley was the worst. He knew the whole time. Last year he knew her brother would mess it up, so he sent someone to douse the vines in kerosene.]

[This year it’s the best friend’s turn. Ten bucks says she goes even harder.]

I couldn’t believe it. I sprinted to the vineyard.

Mallory Ashford was crouched beside the vine, pouring weed killer around the roots like it was nothing.

The ground dropped out from under me.

For over a decade. I’d watered and fertilized those vines, pulled all-nighters to shield them from frost, poured everything I had into becoming the woman Wesley could marry.

And every single year, they ended up dead.

Wesley had weaponized the people I loved and used them to destroy me, year after year.

…

Mallory looked up and saw me.

Her face went white. The bottle slipped from her hand and thudded against the ground.

“Laurel…”

I stared at her, and all I could think about was ten years ago.

She’d run away from home and gotten cornered by some creeps downtown.

I grabbed a road flare from my truck and drove them back with the flames.

When we were finally safe, she clung to me and sobbed.

“Laurel, oh my God. I owe you everything. I swear I’ll never forget this.”

Now Mallory wouldn’t even look at me. Her jaw was tight when she spoke.

“I know what I did. And I’m not sorry.”

“Wesley doesn’t love you anymore. Camille’s the one I call family now.”

She finally looked me in the eye, and every word came out sharp and cold.

“The championship is coming. This vine isn’t surviving.”

I stared at her.

“You’ve known about this all along.”

Mallory went quiet. Then, slowly, she nodded.

“Yeah. Camille said if you actually won the title but still couldn’t have Wesley, it would only hurt you more.”

“She was doing you a favor.”

My mouth twisted into something that wasn’t a smile. I turned and walked away.

I barely made it a few steps before I heard someone running up behind me.

Camille Mercer took one look at the red, irritated skin on Mallory’s ankle from the splashed weed killer, and her eyes welled up immediately.

She whipped around to face me.

“Be mad at me all you want, Laurel. But you didn’t have to attack Mallory.”

Wesley was right behind her.

I looked down. Their fingers were laced together.

Wesley caught me looking. His hand stiffened, and he started to pull away.

But Camille collapsed to her knees first, begging.

“Laurel, Mallory is your best friend. Please don’t let me be the reason you lose her.”

“If this is what it takes to make things right, I’ll beg you.”

Her voice cracked, and she sobbed, burying her face in her hands.

Wesley grabbed her shoulders, pulling her up.

“You don’t need to beg. Get up.”

He crouched down, brushing the dirt from her knees, checking every inch of skin to make sure she wasn’t hurt.

Only then did he stand and turn to me. His brow furrowed.

“You look pale. What’s wrong?”

I opened my mouth, but he was already done with me.

He turned away, pulling Camille behind him.

“Go home, Laurel. I’ll come find you later and we’ll talk.”

I looked at him for a long moment. Then I left.

I’d barely gotten the front door open.

My mother was already pointing at me, shaking with fury.

“I heard you made Camille beg on her knees. What is wrong with you?”

My brother charged at me, raising a hand.

“That’s for Camille!”

I caught his wrist.

They were my family. I still had to ask.

“Why? What did I ever do to you?”

He ripped his arm free.

“You seriously don’t know? You made it look so easy, so everyone decided I had to learn the family business too.”

“Everyone looks at me like I’m not good enough. Camille’s the only one who ever told me it was okay if I wasn’t cut out for this.”

His face was pure contempt. “It’s not just Wesley. This whole family likes her better than you.”

I had nothing. Not one word.

I turned to my mother.

“Mom. Do you feel the same way?”

She sneered.

“Is he wrong?”

“Camille can’t grow grapes, but she sits with me, she checks on me, she actually makes me feel like someone gives a damn. I wish she were my daughter.”

She looked me dead in the eye. “If you’d just let Wesley go, Camille wouldn’t have had to suffer all these years. That’s on you.”

The house went silent.

I looked down at my hands. Calloused and scarred from years of working the vines.

My verdant touch let me feel the life inside a vine, sense when it was fading, coax it back from the edge. After my father died, that gift was the only thing keeping my family afloat.

But I couldn’t grow loyalty in a single person who was supposed to love me.