I Dropped The Bidder To Keep My Empire Chapter 06
My grandfather arrived at the airport the next afternoon.
Harrison Vance took Ashley to pick him up. He left me behind on purpose.
By the time they got back to Vance Manor, Beckett and I were already waiting in the living room.
The front door swung open. My grandfather walked in, using his cane.
The moment he saw Beckett, his eyes went razor-sharp.
“Sierra, what’s going on here?” He stopped and looked at the sling on my arm.
“Grandfather.” I stood up and walked toward him, pushing through the pain. “This is Beckett Hale. I’ve decided to marry him in three days.”
The whole room went dead silent.
Harrison’s face went from red to white to black.
Ashley covered her mouth in disbelief. Tears started falling immediately.
“Sierra, are you doing this just to make Derek jealous? I know you’re upset, but you can’t joke about your own wedding like this!”
Before she even finished, footsteps rushed in from outside.
Derek stormed in with Landon, Lucas, and Grant behind him.
The grapevine had been working overtime.
“Mr. Vance.” Derek walked up to my grandfather, his voice tight. “Sierra’s just acting out. We had a fight, that’s all.”
“A fight?” My grandfather let out a cold laugh and slammed his cane against the floor.
He turned to look at Lucas. “You’re the Roth boy, aren’t you? I heard you’re the one who broke my granddaughter’s arm last night.”
Lucas went white as a sheet. He shot Derek a desperate look.
Derek opened his mouth to explain. “Mr. Vance, it was an accident — “
“An accident?” My grandfather’s voice was quiet, but it cut like a blade. “An accident that sent her to the ER alone in the middle of the night?”
He turned to Harrison. “This is how you’ve been raising the real Vance heiress? Humiliated in public while the fake one struts around town with her mother’s tiara?”
Harrison dropped his head. He didn’t dare say a word.
My grandfather walked over to Beckett. The two of them stared at each other for a long time.
“You’re the Hale boy. You really want to marry her?”
“Yes.” Beckett’s answer came fast. “I’ll protect her. She won’t suffer one more second of this.”
My grandfather nodded. Then he turned to me.
“Sierra, are you sure about this?”
“I’m sure.” I looked him in the eye. “I’m tired, Grandfather. I don’t want to waste any more time on people who aren’t worth it.”
He sighed and waved his hand.
“Then do it. The North Harbor land plot—I’m giving it to Sierra as a personal gift. It won’t go through the Vance family accounts.”
The words landed like a punch to the gut.
Harrison had schemed and plotted to keep that land in the family.
And Derek had always thought that as long as he had me wrapped around his finger, that land would eventually be his.
“Sierra!” Derek lunged toward me, reaching for my hand.
Beckett stepped in front of me. He was half a head taller than Derek.
“Mr. Channing. Get a grip.”
Derek’s eyes were bloodshot. He looked at me, his voice shaking. “Sierra, do you have any idea what you’re doing? Beckett doesn’t love you. He just wants the land.”
I stepped out from behind Beckett and looked at Derek. Calm. Steady.
“So what? He gives me land. I give him money. We know exactly where we stand with each other.”
“Not like you. You took my heart and then threw it to Ashley like a scrap of meat.”
Derek froze. His mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Landon and Grant dropped their heads too. They couldn’t look me in the eye.
In that moment, I saw it—panic flashing behind their eyes.
That feeling of losing something important before you even know what it is.
But I knew.
This was only the beginning.