Chapter 1
Alistair ended the gala in less than three minutes.
He did not scream.
He did not threaten anyone.
That frightened the room more than either would have.
“Everyone out.”
The capos moved first.
Guests followed.
House staff began clearing the ballroom while two security men remained several feet behind Corinne.
Alistair ignored her.
He crouched beside Sadie instead.
Water dripped from the ends of her hair.
Daphne had wrapped the shawl around her shoulders, but the little girl was still trembling.
Alistair removed his suit jacket and placed it over her legs.
“You’re cold.”
Sadie nodded.
“Can Daphne take you upstairs?”
Sadie looked at Corinne.
Then immediately reached for Daphne.
“Yes.”
Alistair noticed.
That hurt.
Not because Sadie trusted Daphne.
Because she looked frightened to remain in the same room as the woman Alistair planned to marry in twelve days.
Daphne began pushing the wheelchair toward the doors.
Sadie suddenly turned.
“Daddy?”
“Yes?”
“I don’t have to say Mom?”
Alistair felt something hard settle inside his chest.
“No.”
“Ever?”
“Not unless you want to.”
Sadie nodded and let Daphne take her away.
Only after the doors closed did Alistair look at Corinne.
She stood slowly.
Her gown was immaculate.
Her engagement ring still glittered beneath the chandelier.
“Alistair, I lost my temper.”
“You poured ice water over a four-year-old.”
“She was being deliberately disrespectful.”
“She’s four.”
“She knows exactly what she’s doing.”
Alistair stared at her.
That sentence told him more than the apology had.
Corinne saw Sadie as an opponent.
Not a child.
“What did you mean about her mother?”
Corinne looked toward the remaining staff.
“Not here.”
“Here.”
“I was angry.”
“So angry that you invented a sentence about Elena disappearing?”
Corinne’s face changed.
Only slightly.
Alistair saw it.
Sadie’s mother, Elena Montelli, had died twenty-one months earlier.
The public story was simple.
A single-car crash during a thunderstorm.
What almost nobody outside a tiny circle knew was that Elena had been missing for nine hours before her wrecked vehicle was found.
She had left the estate without telling Alistair where she was going.
Her phone had been switched off.
She had withdrawn cash.
For nine hours, no one knew where she was.
Then police found her car below an embankment thirty miles north of Chicago.
Alistair had kept those missing hours out of the press.
Only family security, investigators, Daphne, and a few relatives knew.
Corinne had entered his life almost a year after Elena died.
She had always claimed she never met her.
Alistair stepped closer.
“How do you know Elena disappeared?”
Corinne swallowed.
“I’ve heard people talk.”
“Who?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Try.”
Her eyes moved toward the ballroom doors.
Alistair removed her engagement ring.
Corinne stared at his hand.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“Because of one argument?”
“No.”
He placed the ring on the table.
“Because my daughter looked relieved when I told her she never had to call you Mom.”
Corinne’s eyes filled.
“Alistair—”
“Leave.”
She went pale.
“We’re getting married in twelve days.”
“No.”
His voice remained calm.
“We were.”
Then he looked at the two bodyguards.
“Make sure Ms. Vale gets home safely.”
Not his fiancée.
Ms. Vale.
May you like
Corinne heard the difference.
So did everyone else.
