Chapter 4
I met Preston eleven months earlier at a charity dinner.
He thought I coordinated donor events.
Technically, I did.
The Pembroke foundation was mine.
The name on official invitations simply wasn’t.
My father hated the arrangement.
“You want a man who loves Catherine.”
He had told me.
“Not Sebastian Pembroke’s daughter.”
Exactly.
So I kept the surname.
Pembroke was common enough in New York if nobody expected the connection.
I lived modestly.
Worked publicly.
Refused drivers when Preston was around.
And watched.
For the first six months, he was perfect.
Kind.
Patient.
Protective.
Then the engagement ring went on my hand.
Small things changed.
“Don’t wear that dress around my mother.”
Then:
“Stand when she enters.”
Then:
“Family eats first.”
Each cruelty arrived wearing the clothes of tradition.
I kept waiting for the line.
The moment that would prove whether he was rigid or dangerous.
The basement was the line.
I should have left then.
I didn’t.
My father knew none of it.
That was my mistake.
Victoria looked at me from across the ballroom.
“So this was a test?”
“No.”
“What do you call it?”
“Trust.”
She laughed.
“You let yourself be humiliated to test a man.”
“I gave your family enough freedom to reveal itself.”
Tiffany muttered:
“That’s insane.”
I looked at her phone.
“You filmed it because you enjoyed it.”
Her face hardened.
“So?”
“So we both learned something.”
Preston stepped closer.
“You think this makes you clever?”
“No.”
“You’re weak.”
I almost smiled.
“Because I didn’t tell my father?”
“Because you kept taking it.”
There.
The man who abused me blamed me for enduring him.
Exactly the kind of answer I needed.
Then my father spoke.
“Why was I invited here today?”
Preston froze.
Victoria looked at him.
Not at Sebastian.
At Preston.
Another crack.
I frowned.
“You thought Dad was coming for a business meeting.”
Victoria forced a smile.
“He was.”
“With whom?”
No one answered.
My father did.
“Preston.”
I turned.
Sebastian’s voice remained calm.
“He asked for a private meeting three weeks ago.”
I looked at my fiancé.
“What did you want from my father?”
May you like
Preston’s face changed.
And suddenly my secret identity wasn’t the only secret engagement in the room.
