There were ten days left before the wedding.
And from that moment on, she began preparing something more serious.
One afternoon, she handed Sophie the floor plan for the wedding reception.
She spoke quickly, changed several instructions midway through, and mixed up where different tables were supposed to go.
“Does table eight go near the dance floor or by the bar?” Sophie asked.
“By the bar.”
“I thought earlier you said beside the dance floor.”
Olivia looked annoyed.
“Just do what I’m telling you now.”
Hours later, when Michael returned home, Olivia was waiting for him with the wrinkled seating plan in her hands.
“I can’t deal with this anymore.”
Robert was there too.
“What happened?” he asked.
“I explained the table layout to Sophie three times, and she still got it wrong.”
Sophie entered at that exact moment.
“I asked about table eight because the instructions changed.”
Olivia turned toward her.
“That’s a lie.”
“You first said it should go beside the dance floor.”
“I never said that.”
Michael looked from one woman to the other.
He hadn’t heard the original conversation.
Olivia looked furious.
His father was watching him, waiting for him to make a decision.
And Michael made the mistake he would later struggle most to forgive himself for.
“Sophie, maybe it would be better if you took a few days off until after the wedding.”
The room became completely silent.
Sophie set down the linens she had been carrying.
“I understand.”
“I’m not firing you,” Michael added. “I just want to avoid more tension right now.”
Sophie looked directly at him.
“I’ve practically lived in this house for eight months. I’ve taken care of your grandmother, worked for your family, and done everything I’ve been asked to do.”
Michael lowered his voice.
“I know.”
“Then if after eight months you still have to wonder which one of us is telling the truth, I think I already have my answer.”
Sophie gathered her things and left.
That night, Michael couldn’t sleep.
The next morning, he went to Margaret’s room.
“Grandma, I need you to tell me what’s really happening.”
Margaret studied him for several seconds.
“Now you’re ready to hear it.”
And what she told him made Michael realize the spilled wine in the kitchen had not even been the worst of it.
Part 3
“Olivia has spent months making people doubt themselves,” Margaret said. “She gives one instruction and later insists she said something completely different.”
Michael felt his stomach knot.
“Has she done that to you too?”
“She doesn’t push it much with me. But I’ve seen her do it to Sophie when I was nearby.”
Margaret set her knitting aside.
“Once, she told Sophie to buy white flowers for the dining room. When Sophie brought them home, Olivia told some friends she had asked for roses. Sophie apologized even though I heard the original request myself.”
Michael said nothing.
“Another time, she asked Sophie to switch the curtains in one room. When you came home, Olivia complained that Sophie had moved things without permission. And whenever guests come over, she hugs her, calls her ‘sweetheart,’ and talks about her like she’s practically family. The moment everyone leaves, she changes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Margaret looked at him sadly.
“Because for a long time, you didn’t seem interested in seeing it.”
That hurt because it was true.
Michael started asking questions.
He didn’t gather the staff together.
He spoke to each person separately.
First, Janet, the cook.
“I don’t want to cause problems for you, Mr. Michael,” she said.
“You won’t. I just need the truth.”
Janet took a breath.
“Miss Olivia is very kind when other people are around. But when we’re alone, she’s different. Once she told me to prepare dinner for six people. Ten guests showed up, and in front of her mother she said I had forgotten four of them.”
“What did you do?”
“Nothing. What could I do?”
Then he spoke to Marcus, the driver.
“She left me waiting outside a shopping center for nearly two hours,” he said. “Then she came out angry because she claimed I had been late. When I tried to show her the messages, she told me I was being disrespectful.”
George, the gardener, told him something almost identical.
One instruction.
Then denial.
A mistake manufactured afterward.
A public reprimand.
Every one of them had stayed silent because they were afraid of losing their jobs.
And none of them knew what the others had said.
Michael ended up sitting alone in his office.
The wedding invitations were spread across the desk.
His name beside Olivia’s.
Michael and Olivia.
For months, those words had represented a future.
Now they looked like a warning.
He thought of his mother.
Linda had died four years earlier, but he could still hear her voice.
“Pay attention to how someone treats people they don’t need to impress. That’s when you’ll see who they really are.”
Michael closed his eyes.
The answer had been right in front of him since the afternoon with the wine.
He had simply lacked the courage to accept it.
That night, he went to find Sophie.
She was temporarily staying with an aunt in Marietta.
When she opened the door and saw him, she didn’t smile.
“Sophie, I came to apologize.”
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.”
Michael didn’t defend himself.
He told her he had spoken to Margaret, Janet, Marcus, and George.
“I know what Olivia has been doing.”
Sophie crossed her arms.
“Now you know.”
“I should have believed you sooner.”
“Yes.”
The answer was short.
That made it hurt even more.
“When you asked me to leave,” she continued, “the worst part wasn’t missing a few days of work. It was realizing Olivia had spent weeks telling everyone I was irresponsible, and when the time came, it worked.”
Michael looked down.
“You’re right.”
“I don’t need you to come here and tell me she’s a bad person. I needed someone to ask me what was happening before deciding I must have made another mistake.”
Michael stayed silent.
There was nothing he could argue with.
“I can’t undo what I did,” he finally said. “But I can make sure I don’t do it again.”
Sophie nodded.
She didn’t promise to return.
Michael left.
The wedding was two days away.
For the next forty-eight hours, Olivia believed everything had gone back to normal.
Michael didn’t argue.
He didn’t yell.
He didn’t cancel the vendors.
He didn’t contact her family.
