Chương 2
She kept walking.
Behind her, Daniel said, “Claire, please.”
She did not turn.
Arthur said something to him, low enough that Claire could not hear.
Richard raised his voice.
Victoria told him to stop.
The room erupted into the sort of noise that comes after people have spent thirty seconds forcing themselves to be civilized.
Claire crossed the ballroom, reached the double doors, and found them closed.
That annoyed her.
She pulled one.
The heavy door stuck against her dress.
For a ridiculous moment she was trapped by seven thousand dollars’ worth of French lace.
“Damn it.”
A young catering server hurried forward.
“Ma’am, let me—”
“I’ve got it.”
She did not.
The fabric had caught beneath the brass doorstop.
The server bent, freed it, and stepped back.
“Thank you,” Claire said.
His eyes were huge.
“You’re welcome.”
She walked out.
The corridor beyond the ballroom was empty except for two abandoned champagne trays and a hotel employee adjusting flowers on a console table.
The wedding music had stopped completely.
Claire could hear her own breathing.
She made it twenty yards before her knees began shaking.
She stopped beside a gilded mirror.
The woman reflected there looked absurd.
Ivory lace. Diamond earrings. Crystal hairpiece. Makeup still intact. A bride carefully constructed for a future that had lasted exactly as long as it took a seventy-one-year-old man to open a folder.
Claire pressed her palm to the wall.
The doors opened behind her.
She expected Daniel.
It was Victoria.
Claire kept facing the mirror.
“Please,” Victoria said.
Her voice was thin.
Claire closed her eyes.
“Did you know?”
A pause.
That was enough.
Claire turned.
Victoria’s face crumpled, but only for a second. She recovered almost immediately.
“I knew Richard was in trouble.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I didn’t know about the deed.”
“Did you know Daniel was involved?”
“No.”
Another pause.
Claire laughed once.
It came out ugly.
Victoria flinched.
“Please don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Ask questions if you’ve already decided every hesitation means I’m lying.”
Claire looked at her.
Victoria hugged her arms across herself. One diamond earring had twisted backward.
For the first time Claire could remember, Daniel’s mother looked her age.
“I knew the company was under pressure,” Victoria said. “I knew Richard was borrowing money. I knew he had asked Daniel to help. That’s what I knew.”
“And you didn’t tell me.”
“It wasn’t my company.”
“It was apparently going to become mine.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Claire studied her.
“I want to believe you.”
Victoria’s mouth tightened.
“I know.”
“That isn’t the same thing as believing you.”
“No.”
The ballroom doors opened again.
Daniel came through.
Victoria stepped aside.
Claire’s entire body reacted before her mind did. Her stomach contracted. Her hand tightened against the wall. A part of her still recognized him as the man who tucked cold feet beneath her calves at night and made grilled cheese when she had migraines.
That part had not received the new information yet.
Daniel stopped several feet away.
He looked different without the wedding smile.
Smaller somehow, though he was six foot two.
“Can we go somewhere private?”
Claire almost laughed again.
“Private.”
“I know how that sounds.”
“You keep saying things like that.”
He glanced at his mother.
“Mom.”
Victoria nodded and walked back toward the ballroom.
Daniel waited until the doors closed.
Claire watched him.
“What’s in the envelope?”
His jaw tightened.
“I don’t know exactly.”
“You looked at it like you did.”
“I know what it could be.”
“What could it be?”
“Claire—”
“No. We’re done with my name being the opening of a sentence you don’t finish.”
He looked down.
That angered her more than if he had shouted.
“What could it be?”
Daniel rubbed his thumb against the side of his wedding band.
He was already wearing one.
They had done the legal ceremony privately that afternoon.
Claire’s breath stopped.
The ballroom ceremony had been ceremonial.
The marriage certificate had been signed at four thirteen.
“Oh my God.”
Daniel looked up.
“What?”
“We’re already married.”
The realization hit him too.
Claire saw it.
That almost made things worse.
Arthur had chosen his timing believing the ballroom vows mattered.
Legally, they did not.
Claire had married Daniel nearly three hours earlier in a small library upstairs, with only their officiant and two witnesses present, because the judge performing the public ceremony had an emergency and needed the paperwork finished beforehand.
Daniel stepped toward her.
“Claire, listen to me.”
“Did you know this thing could activate today?”
“I knew there was an escrow arrangement.”
The hallway seemed to tilt.
“You knew.”
“I didn’t know he filed it.”
“Who is he?”
Daniel did not answer quickly enough.
“Your father.”
“Yes.”
“What did you know?”
He rubbed his face.
“A draft existed.”
“With my forged signature?”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“No. I swear to you. When I saw that signature in there just now, that was the first time.”
She wanted to believe him so badly that she hated him for making belief dangerous.
“Then why didn’t you look surprised?”
“I was surprised.”
“You looked scared.”
“I was scared.”
“Of what?”
He said nothing.
Claire stepped closer.
“Of what is in the envelope?”
He looked toward the ballroom.
“Richard’s company has a loan coming due.”
“How much?”
“Claire.”
“How much?”
“Forty-eight million.”
She stared at him.
Daniel’s breathing was shallow now.
“Some of it is secured. Some isn’t. There’s a development in Maryland, two office conversions, a hotel note. The numbers moved fast.”
“Companies don’t accidentally owe forty-eight million dollars.”
“No.”
“And your father thought marrying me solved that?”
“No.”
“Then explain it.”
“I’m trying.”
“You’re editing.”
Daniel looked at her sharply.
She knew she was right.
He had done it during arguments for years. He would start with the version of a fact least likely to upset her, gauge the reaction, then decide whether she deserved the rest.
She had once thought it was conflict avoidance.
May you like
Now it looked like training.
“Tell me the worst version,” she said.
