Chapter 1
I placed the full envelope into Erin’s trembling hand.
“You paid her to humiliate the man your father calls Boss.”
Celeste’s smile disappeared.
For a moment nobody in the ballroom moved.
Champagne ran down the front of her gown while two of my men stood silently behind her. Erin remained beside me with wet hair stuck to her cheeks, one hand clutching the money as though she still expected somebody to take it away.
Celeste recovered first.
“It was a joke.”
I looked at her.
“Which part?”
She said nothing.
“The kiss?”
Nothing.
“The champagne?”
Her jaw tightened.
“Or promising a desperate woman money you never intended to give her?”
Erin flinched at the word desperate.
I noticed.
So did Celeste.
That little reaction told me this was not the first time somebody had used Erin’s situation to make her feel small.
I turned toward her.
“What does your sister need?”
She instinctively covered the dental estimate sticking from her apron.
“Nothing.”
Celeste laughed.
“Apparently enough to kiss strangers.”
Erin lowered her eyes.
I looked at Celeste.
“Leave.”
Her expression changed.
“My father is hosting half this event.”
“And yet you’re leaving before him.”
She stared at me.
One of my bodyguards stepped closer.
Celeste finally moved.
As she passed Erin, she whispered:
“You still won’t get approved.”
I heard it.
So did Erin.
She went completely still.
I turned.
“Approved for what?”
Erin shook her head.
“Nothing.”
Celeste stopped three steps away.
Wrong decision.
I looked at her.
“What did you mean?”
She smiled faintly again.
“Ask the waitress.”
Then she walked toward the ballroom doors.
I could have stopped her.
I didn’t.
Because suddenly Erin mattered more.
I looked at the dental estimate.
Then at the charity crest printed on the folder tucked beneath it.
Rinaldi Family Relief.
My family’s fund.
I knew the name.
My father created it fifteen years ago for the wives and children of people who suffered protecting us.
I looked at Erin.
“You applied to my family for help?”
Her eyes filled.
“Three times.”
My voice lowered.
“And nobody answered?”
She shook her head.
Then said the sentence that made the entire ballroom disappear around me.
“They answered.”
May you like
A pause.
“They said the Walsh family stopped qualifying eight years ago.”
