Chapter 15: The Gala

Tilda's POV

The Lorne Freight gala was in a hotel ballroom, and I checked twice that it wasn't the same one.

It had round tables, a stage and a giant screen above the stage, and I did not like any of the three.

Harvey had played me Mallory's clip himself, over coffee, that morning.

"I'd rather you hear it from me," he had said.

Then he had gone to shower, and I had phoned the company's lawyer before the coffee cooled.

The company's lawyer had gone through the events office email before breakfast.

Mallory had used her work laptop to plan her lie, and she had planned it in writing.

Now I stood at the edge of the dance floor in a dark green dress with my husband's hand at the small of my back.

He had not once tried to steer me.

"You're sure?" he asked quietly.

"I'm sure."

"I took my hands off your shares. I meant it."

"I know. That's why I'm letting you hold my wrist."

He turned my hand over, and he pressed his mouth to the inside of it.

It was a small place, and nobody had ever kissed it before.

I felt him stop breathing for a moment, and I told myself it was the crowd.

Across the room, at the audio table by the stage, a woman in a black headset adjusted a dial.

Cory had given Mallory a job in the events office a year ago, and nobody in my family had thought to ask what it was for.

She did not look at me.

At nine, Cory's father tapped a glass at the head table.

"Friends," he said. "Colleagues. Before dessert, a word about the founder, and about the new custodian of his shares."

Keep reading free with an account. Start I Married a Stranger to Ruin My Groom from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.