My boyfriend, the heir to a bourbon dynasty, called and ordered me to go apologize to his blue-blooded fiancée. I hung up and blocked him. Just hours earlier, I had won the highest honor in the whiskey world for his family. Then he announced his engagement to another woman in the morning paper, all so he could inherit the family fortune. He’d even tried to gaslight me over the phone. “It’s just a business arrangement. You’re the only woman I love! Once I get the trust, I’ll marry you!” He thought I loved him enough to have no dignity left. He thought the only thing he’d thrown away was a girlfriend without the right last name. He would find out soon enough. What he had smashed with his own hands was his family’s only future. … A moment later, an unfamiliar number lit up my screen. I answered, and Grayson Hayes’s voice came through at once, tight with anger. “Clara, how many times do I have to explain this?” “I already told you, Savannah and I are just a business move. It’s to unlock the family trust. Do you really have to be this petty?” “I promised you, once I have everything, it’ll be our turn. What more do you want from me?” “There’s a limit to this tantrum. You can’t just joke about breaking up whenever you feel like it.” I gripped my phone so tightly my knuckles went white. The glaring newspaper spread flashed before my eyes again. For the past ten years, being with Grayson had been my life’s sole ambition. In my private notebook, I had filled page after page with inspiration for hundreds of new releases, each marked with the year, barrel type, and projected flavor curve. Every one of them had been for the future of the Hayes family, and for the future I thought I shared with him. But every time I tried to move our relationship forward, Grayson had an excuse. At first, it was, “Those old men on the board haven’t accepted you yet. Wait until this new release wins gold. That’ll shut them up.” To secur......
