Chapter 1
The waitress grabbed my glass seconds before I drank and shouted, “Sir, please don’t taste it!” Then she showed me a video that made my wife start screaming.
My name is Richard Sterling, and that night my family was hosting a private anniversary dinner at an upscale restaurant in Manhattan.
My wife, Eleanor, had planned every detail herself.
The flowers.
The guest list.
Even the wine.
When the server poured my glass, Eleanor smiled and raised hers.
“To thirty years.”
I lifted mine.
Then a young waitress rushed across the room and grabbed my wrist.
“Sir, please don’t taste it!”
Every conversation stopped.
Eleanor stood immediately.
“Do not embarrass this family! Get your hands off his glass!”
I stared at the waitress.
“What is the meaning of this?”
She was trembling, but she didn’t release me.
“Please look at this first.”
She held out her phone.
Eleanor moved between us.
“Don’t look at that. She’s lying.”
That frightened me more than the waitress did.
I took the phone.
The video showed the restaurant pantry less than an hour earlier.
A woman entered carrying Eleanor’s distinctive handbag.
Then she placed a small marker beside one wine decanter.
My name was written on it.
I slowly looked up.
“Eleanor… is that you?”
Her face went white.
“It’s fake.”
The waitress shook her head.
“I found the camera footage after I saw her switch the decanters.”
Eleanor suddenly reached for the phone.
I stepped back.
“Why was my name on that bottle?”
She said nothing.
Then the waitress whispered, “Mr. Sterling, there’s something else.”
She pointed toward Eleanor’s purse.
“I saw what she put back inside.”
Eleanor grabbed the bag.
“Security!”
But two guards were already moving toward her.
I opened the purse before she could stop me.
Inside was a small container wrapped in a restaurant napkin.
My hands started shaking.
“Why would you do this?”
Eleanor stared at me for several seconds.
Then she whispered, “Because you changed the will.”
The room went silent again.
I had changed my will.
But I had told only one person.
May you like
My attorney.
And when I turned toward the far end of the table, my attorney was already gone.
