"You… You're disowning me?" Emmeline's mouth fell open, despair overwhelming her features. Her glassy eyes stared at her grandfather, hoping to see a semblance of a smile, a cheeky grin― anything to prove that he was simply joking.
Because he couldn't be serious. He could not be threatening to disown her over… over this farce of a marriage announcement!
"You're choosing Amelia over me?" Emmeline continued, her voice reaching unprecedented highs. Every servant in the Hawthorne household would have heard the news.
"Father! You must be joking!" The sheer ridiculousness of Horace Hawthorne's words resulted in Annalise loosening her tongue. If she did not speak up now to defend Emmeline's right to inherit, she might as well kiss her status in the family goodbye.
"Aiden isn't terrible, but he's definitely not a good enough match for Emmeline. If you must marry Emmeline off, please consider picking someone else!"