Chương 3
“Victoria, please.”
She stopped near an arrangement of white hydrangeas taller than she was.
Ethan caught up.
Up close, he looked older than thirty-one. Sweat had gathered at his hairline. One knee of his tuxedo trousers was dusty from the ballroom floor.
“You saw the scar before tonight,” she said.
His throat moved.
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“At your apartment.”
She frowned.
“I haven’t invited you to my apartment in two years.”
“You didn’t.”
The memory returned.
A rainy Thursday.
A messenger from Hale Meridian had arrived with board documents requiring Victoria’s signature. Ethan had come instead of a courier because Richard claimed the papers were too sensitive.
Victoria had opened the door wearing an oversized gray sweater.
She had reached upward for an envelope on the shelf near the entryway.
The sweater collar had shifted.
Ethan had gone very still.
She had pulled it back into place.
He had asked whether she had been in an accident.
She had said she burned herself cooking.
It had been a terrible lie.
He had accepted it.
Or pretended to.
“You knew I was lying,” Victoria said.
“Yes.”
“And you left.”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the ballroom doors.
“Because your father was waiting downstairs.”
Victoria stared at him.
“He came with you?”
“He drove.”
Richard never drove himself in Manhattan.
“He was in the car?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t he come up?”
Ethan rubbed both hands over his face.
“I didn’t think about it then.”
“That’s not true.”
He lowered his hands.
“No.”
She waited.
Ethan stared at the carpet between them.
“He told me before I came upstairs that if you looked tired, I wasn’t supposed to ask questions.”
Victoria felt the corridor shift slightly beneath her.
“What exact words?”
“Something like, ‘My daughter has had a difficult month. Don’t encourage her tendency toward dramatics.’”
Her father’s voice fit inside the sentence perfectly.
Ethan continued.
“Then I saw your back.”
“And still didn’t ask.”
“I did ask.”
“Once.”
“Yes.”
“And I lied badly.”
“Yes.”
“And you left.”
His eyes reddened.
“I was getting married in three weeks. Richard had just approved the financing package that kept my division alive. Half my team would’ve been gone if he pulled it.”
Victoria’s mouth turned bitterly.
“So you decided my back was none of your business.”
“No.”
“What did you decide?”
“That I didn’t want to know.”
That was better.
Worse, but better.
Victoria nodded.
Behind them, the ballroom doors opened.
Madeline emerged carrying the front of her wedding gown in one hand.
She had removed her veil.
Without it, she looked strangely unfinished.
Richard followed several yards behind.
Madeline stopped when she saw Ethan and Victoria together.
Ethan turned.
“We’re going upstairs.”
Madeline laughed once. “That’s what Victoria told you to do?”
“No. It’s what I’m telling you.”
“Finally.”
“Don’t.”
“You waited through an entire wedding ceremony to develop a spine. Let me notice.”
Ethan’s face went blank.
Victoria was suddenly exhausted by both of them.
“Madeline.”
The bride looked at her.
“Why did you grab me?”
Madeline’s expression shifted.
“You were reaching for the envelope.”
“What envelope?”
Madeline looked toward Richard.
Richard stood absolutely still.
Victoria followed her gaze.
Then she understood what she had been doing when Madeline seized her wrist.
She had been reaching across the wedding table for a cream envelope tucked beneath the place cards.
She had assumed it contained a note from a guest.
“What was in it?”
Madeline said nothing.
Ethan turned to her.
“What envelope?”
Madeline’s grip tightened around her skirt.
“Something I was going to give you after the reception.”
“What?”
“Not here.”
Richard said quietly, “That phrase has become tiresome.”
Madeline snapped toward him. “You don’t get to be tired.”
“Madeline.”
“No. You set this up.”
Richard almost smiled.
“You attacked my daughter in front of two hundred witnesses.”
“I grabbed her wrist.”
“And exposed injuries you helped conceal.”
“I didn’t know the strap would tear.”
“No, you merely lost control.”
Madeline took one step toward him.
Ethan caught her elbow.
She shook him off.
Victoria saw the familiar pattern almost before it happened.
Richard remained quiet.
Madeline got louder.
Richard remained still.
Madeline looked unstable.
Richard looked reasonable.
He had done it to Victoria since she was fourteen.
She had never recognized how effective it looked from outside.
“Stop,” Victoria said.
Madeline turned.
“Where is the envelope?”
“I don’t know.”
“You put it under the place card.”
“Yes.”
“Who else knew?”
“No one.”
Richard said, “What was inside?”
Madeline ignored him.
“Pictures.”
Victoria’s skin prickled.
“Of what?”
Madeline looked at Ethan.
“Her injuries.”
Ethan stared at her.
Victoria said, “How did you get them?”
“I took them.”
“When?”
“At the hospital.”
A memory flashed.
Madeline’s phone held above the bed.
Victoria turning her face away.
The click of a camera.
She had assumed the nurse requested documentation.
“No,” Victoria said.
Madeline nodded quickly. “You asked me to.”
“I don’t remember that.”
“I know.”
“You photographed me while I was drugged?”
“You were awake.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“I know.”
“Stop saying that.”
Madeline flinched.
Victoria’s shoulder began throbbing beneath the pinned strap.
“What else was in the envelope?”
“A printed email.”
Richard’s voice changed.
Only slightly.
“From whom?”
Madeline finally looked at him.
“You.”
For the first time that evening, Richard did not immediately respond.
Victoria noticed.
So did Ethan.
Madeline’s lips trembled, but her voice steadied.
“You sent it to me at 4:41 that morning. You told me the hospital registration had to remain under Brooks until Victoria was discharged. You told me not to contact Ethan. You told me not to call the police.”
Richard tilted his head.
“Do you have this email?”
“A screenshot.”
“Convenient.”
“I forwarded it before you wiped my phone.”
“I have never touched your phone.”
“No. You had Nolan take it.”
Richard’s jaw tightened at the mention of his head of security.
There.
A second fracture.
Victoria said, “Where’s the screenshot?”
May you like
“In that envelope.”
Everyone looked toward the ballroom.
