Under a Borrowed Name

Chapter 12: The Gala Invitation

"You want me to what," Elena said, certain she had misheard him.

"Attend the Kane Foundation gala with me. As my date." Damian said it with the particular ease of a man used to people saying yes to him, though something in his eyes suggested he was not nearly as certain of her answer as he wanted to appear. "Officially, it's to reassure the board and the press that Kane Holdings is stable and confident despite the Halloway coverage. A united front, my communications team calls it."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially, I'd rather spend the evening next to someone whose company I actually enjoy instead of pretending to laugh at my father's business associates' jokes for four hours."

Elena studied him for a long moment, weighing the danger of it against the opportunity. A public event, cameras, press, the entire Kane family orbit gathered in one room. It was exactly the kind of exposure she had spent five weeks trying to avoid, and exactly the kind of access that might let her get close enough to whatever remained of the Cain connection to finally pull it fully into the light.

"People will talk," she said.

"People are already talking. Might as well give them something interesting to talk about." The almost smile again, the one that had started doing dangerous things to her composure weeks ago. "Say yes, Elena."

It was the first time he had used her first name instead of Ms. Marchetti, and something in her chest tightened at the sound of it, at how easily the wrong name still fit in his mouth, how much longer she had to keep it that way before everything came apart.

"Yes," she said. "I'll come."

Sofia found her in the executive kitchen an hour later, unable to resist the opportunity apparently, though her tone had shifted since their last conversation, sharper edges softened into something more like genuine curiosity than suspicion.

"He asked you to the gala."

"News travels fast in this building."

"News about my brother travels at the speed of light in this building, you'll get used to it." Sofia poured herself coffee, leaning against the counter in her now familiar way. "I haven't seen him this interested in someone in years. Not since before our mother died, honestly."

"That's a lot of pressure to put on one gala invitation."

"I'm not trying to pressure you. I'm trying to figure out if I should be worried." Sofia's eyes were steady, searching, though there was less accusation in them than there had been weeks earlier. "I still don't know what you're hiding, Marchetti. But I've watched you for over a month now, and whatever it is, I don't think it's the kind of thing that wants to hurt him. I think it might be the kind of thing that's hurting you a lot more than it's hurting anyone else."

Elena's hands went still around her coffee cup. "What makes you say that."

"Because you look at him sometimes like you're already grieving something that hasn't happened yet." Sofia's voice had gone quiet, unusually gentle. "I don't know what your story is. But I've decided, for now, to trust that whatever you're carrying, you're carrying it because you have to, not because you want to hurt my family. I could be wrong. God knows I've been wrong about people before. But I'd rather be wrong trusting you than wrong pushing you away before you're ready to explain yourself."

It was, Elena realized, the closest thing to grace she had been offered since she walked through the glass doors of Kane Holdings, and it came from precisely the person she had least expected to offer it.

"Thank you," she said quietly, and meant it more than she had meant almost anything else she had said in this building.

"Don't thank me yet." Sofia pushed off the counter, heading for the door, though she paused just before leaving, glancing back with something almost like a smile. "Wear something that photographs well. If you're going to blow up whatever secret you're keeping, you might as well look good doing it."

She left before Elena could respond, and Elena stood alone in the kitchen for a long moment, thinking about grace she had not earned yet, and a gala that was about to put her directly in front of every camera and every enemy she had spent five years carefully avoiding, all at once, with no way left to disappear before the truth finally caught up to her.