Chapter 1
“Iris. Is he here tonight?”
Her eyes widened.
Then moved past my shoulder.
I did not turn immediately.
Fear makes people watch the danger before they name it.
Across the ballroom, forks had stopped halfway to mouths. Thirty-two guests sat beneath chandeliers pretending not to stare while Scarlett stood rigid beside me.
I opened my fist.
Silver cufflink.
Black stone.
A thin engraved line shaped like a split crown.
I knew it.
I had given the pair to one man twelve years earlier.
Cassian Vale.
My closest lieutenant.
My childhood friend.
The man seated six places down from me.
Only then did I turn.
Cassian met my eyes calmly.
Dark suit.
White shirt.
Left cuff fastened.
Right cuff bare.
There.
Scarlett whispered:
“Dorian.”
I raised one hand.
She stopped.
Iris was still trembling.
Not from the room.
From Scarlett.
I looked at my maid’s bruised knuckles.
“How did your hand get hurt?”
Scarlett answered first.
“She stole from my room.”
I looked at Iris.
“Did you?”
“No, sir.”
Her voice barely carried.
“Cassian dropped it.”
Silence.
Cassian leaned back.
“That’s absurd.”
I walked toward him.
Slowly.
Every guest tracked me.
I stopped beside his chair and held the cufflink between two fingers.
“Then show me the other one.”
He smiled.
Wrong reaction.
“You’re going to interrupt your engagement over jewelry?”
“No.”
I lowered my voice.
“I’m interrupting it because my fiancée recognized what was inside a maid’s closed hand from across the table.”
Scarlett’s breath caught.
Cassian’s smile vanished.
Good.
I looked at Iris again.
“Where exactly was he?”
She swallowed.
“Miss Scarlett’s dressing room.”
Cassian’s jaw tightened.
“When?”
“Forty minutes ago.”
Scarlett grabbed the table edge.
I asked one more question.
“What were they doing?”
Iris stared at Cassian.
Then at me.
“He was showing her which door your men would leave open after the toast.”
I felt the room change.
Not an affair.
Not jewelry.
May you like
A route.
And whatever Scarlett and Cassian had planned was supposed to happen before dessert.
