Chapter 4: Take It Off
1294 Words
My hand stopped on the door.
Inside, Theo Vescari kept speaking.
“I didn’t want to embarrass either family. But there’s money missing, and now she won’t answer.”
Draven Vescari stood beside me.
“Do you want a minute?”
“No.”
I pushed the door open.
The room had been arranged exactly as I had approved it. White flowers stood in low bowls so people could see across the tables. My mother’s place had extra space beside it.
The chair was empty.
Theo stood beneath a small arrangement of lights, accepting sympathy from people who had come to celebrate our engagement.
“You could have called,” I said.
He turned.
For a moment, his face held no expression at all.
Then he came toward me.
“Mara. Thank God.”
“Don’t.”
He stopped just beyond arm’s reach. His eyes traveled over my dress, the loose neckline, the shoes that weren’t mine.
“Where have you been?”
“You know where I was taken.”
A murmur moved near the closest table.
Theo lowered his voice. “We should do this outside.”
“You were speaking loudly enough before.”
Draven came through the doorway behind me. Conversation died in patches as people recognized him.
Theo looked at him, then at me.
“What is this?”
“My wife came to correct your account,” Draven said.
A server holding a tray went still.
Theo laughed once.
“No.”
I lifted my left hand just enough for him to see the plain band.
“Yes.”
***
Celeste Harlow stood beside the far end of the table, her hand hidden behind a folded napkin.
I went toward her.
She put the napkin down. My engagement ring caught the overhead light before she turned the stone inward.
“Take it off.”
“Mara, you’re making a scene.”
“The ring.”
She looked past me toward Theo.
I held out my palm.
“I’m not leaving without it.”
“You gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Last night. You were upset. You said you didn’t want—”
“Where were we?”
Her lips parted.
“Tell them where I handed it over.”
“You’d been drinking.”
“Yes. The drink you brought me.”
An older guest shifted her chair back. The scrape sounded painfully loud.
Celeste shook her head, looking around for someone who would find this ridiculous with her.
“You can’t seriously expect people to believe whatever story you’ve invented.”
“I saw it on your hand behind the glass.”
“What glass?”
“At the auction.”
The word stopped a whispered conversation near the windows.
Theo reached us.
“That’s enough.”
“No,” I said. “It wasn’t enough when you gave them my name. Or when you set the reserve.”
His face tightened.
“You don’t know what you heard.”
There it was. No surprised question. No demand to know who had hurt me.
I wanted to strike him. The wanting was so sharp that I curled my free hand into my skirt.
Instead, I looked back at Celeste.
“Take it off.”
***
Cassian Vescari rose from the central table.
He didn’t need to call for attention. People moved aside before he reached us.
“My brother has always enjoyed an entrance,” he said. “I hadn’t expected him to use your distress for one.”
Draven’s voice stayed level.
“Choose your next claim carefully.”
Cassian looked at the band on my hand.
“How long has this been going on?”
“We married today,” I said.
“That wasn’t my question.”
“It’s the answer you’re getting.”
He turned slightly, including the guests.
“A secret relationship, followed by an accusation against the man she agreed to marry. Surely we can all see why this requires discretion.”
A man near the flowers looked down at his place setting.
My cheeks burned. Cassian had given the room a familiar story, one people could repeat without imagining a locked collar.
“There was no affair,” I said. “Your son sold me. Your brother stopped the transfer.”
“That is an extraordinary accusation.”
“It was an extraordinary night.”
Theo moved closer.
“You’re exhausted. You need someone who knows you.”
“I heard your voice.”
He glanced at Cassian.
I kept my eyes on him.
“You called me what you called me upstairs. You said Celeste would arrange delivery. You told Gideon Rusk to credit the price against your debt.”
Someone whispered Theo’s name.
Cassian cut in. “There is no need to repeat lurid inventions in front of guests.”
“Then stop making me answer lies in front of them.”
My voice broke on the last word. I hated it.
Draven moved a glass of water within reach, then left it there.
I took a drink. My hand shook enough for the rim to touch my teeth.
Nobody rescued the silence.
Celeste began edging toward her chair.
I stepped into her path.
“My ring.”
“It was a gift from Theo,” she said.
“To me.”
“You’re wearing another man’s ring now.”
“And you’re still wearing my property.”
She looked at Theo again.
He said nothing.
For the first time, her expression changed without an audience-ready smile over it.
I kept my hand extended. My shoulder ached. I didn’t lower it.
Celeste twisted the ring. It caught at her knuckle, and she gave a little impatient tug.
“Honestly, Mara.”
I waited.
She pulled it free.
For a second, she held it between us as if I might reach and make the surrender easier.
I didn’t.
She lowered it into my open palm.
The metal was warm from her skin.
I closed my hand.
***
Theo caught the movement and reached toward my wrist.
“Don’t touch her,” Draven said.
He hadn’t raised his voice.
Theo stopped with his fingers inches away.
“This is between us.”
“She told you no at the door.”
Theo’s arm dropped.
I moved beside Draven, close enough that the sleeve of his jacket brushed my bare forearm. He made room without closing his hand around me.
Cassian watched the two of us.
“You think a hurried marriage changes what you are doing?”
“No,” Draven said. “It changes what you can plausibly pretend you didn’t hear.”
“You have obligations to this family.”
“Not the one you’re proposing.”
I looked around the room. Some guests watched openly. Others studied glasses, napkins, anything that didn’t require an expression.
Nobody applauded.
I was glad. I couldn’t have borne applause.
“Where’s my mother?” I asked.
A woman near the entrance answered quietly. “Her car hadn’t arrived when I came in.”
I nodded. I would call her. I would tell her not to come into this room.
The flowers I had chosen smelled too sweet.
I wanted my shoes off. I wanted the ring out of my hand, somewhere it couldn’t touch my skin.
But I had it.
And they had heard me.
Draven glanced toward the doors. I nodded, and we started walking.
Theo followed only far enough to reach the edge of the gathering. He waited until Cassian was speaking to someone else, until the nearest guests had turned their heads.
Then he leaned close enough that his words were meant for me alone.
“Iris Ellery’s care payments stop before morning.”
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