Chapter 9
1277 Words
Back inside, the mood had shifted to something romantic.
The band played slow, sensual music, and slowly, one after the other, couples drifted toward the dance floor.
Zane put his glass down on a passing waiter’s tray and turned to Katherine with a smile that suggested he had something scandalous going on in his head.
"Dance with me," he said.
Katherine raised an eyebrow. She wasn’t expecting this. “Are you being serious?”
He deepened his smile and pulled out his hands, inviting her.
She looked around, wondering if people would notice that he wasn’t her husband. She thought of what they would say. Of how they would take a married woman dancing with a married man.
Then, she thought about Lucas and all the worry in her head flew out the window.
“Fine.” She said and took his hand.
He led her onto the floor, moving to the music with their hands on each other. Usually, it would have felt wrong but they were on the dance floor.
It didn’t matter.
She noticed Lucas return through the far door.
She didn't look at him directly, but she felt the exact moment he saw them, the way the room seemed to shift slightly around him.
He stopped walking. He stood steps from them with a frown on his face. A very confused one.
"He's back," she said quietly, looking at him over Zane’s shoulder.
"I know," Zane said, moving his hand from her back to her waist, careful not to overstep. "Don't look."
She didn’t.
She kept her eyes away from Lucas, responding to something Zane was saying with a small smile, and let Lucas watch.
It didn't take long.
Within a few minutes, she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder.
"Mind if I cut in?"
Zane stepped back without hesitation, nodding his head politely. "Of course," he said easily, and moved away.
Lucas took her hand and her waist and they began to move. For a moment neither of them spoke, the music filling the space between them.
Then he said, "I don't like him around you."
Katherine kept her posture relaxed. "Who?"
"You know who."
She let a few counts of music pass before she responded. "He was being polite, Lucas. We were just dancing."
"I don't care. I don't like it."
She looked up at him then, her eyes calm and direct. "Okay," she said simply.
He waited for more. For reassurance, for her to tell him he had nothing to worry about, for the version of Katherine who had always rushed to smooth things over the moment he showed any discomfort.
That version didn't come.
She just looked at him quietly, let him lead her through the steps, and said nothing else.
***********
Two days later, they were back in the city, and nothing about the house felt the same anymore.
Though he didn’t want to admit it, Lucas knew something had changed in their relationship since the first night on the cruise.
Katherine stood in the closet doorway, watching Lucas pack a bag for the office, one of his regular activities.
"I won't be home tonight," he said, folding a shirt into the bag. "There's an emergency with the Whitfield case. It's going to run late."
Before the cruise, she would have asked questions, offered to bring him dinner, told him to call if he needed anything, or worried herself sick about how tired he was going to be.
Now, she simply nodded.
She didn’t even believe he was actually going on a work trip.
"Okay," she said, her voice cold.
Lucas paused, his hand still on the zipper. He glanced up at her, waiting for something more. When it didn't come, he frowned. "You're not going to pack anything for me?"
"You've packed for yourself plenty of times," she said, leaning against the doorframe. "I'm sure you'll manage."
"Right." He zipped the bag shut, watching her a moment longer. "You okay? You seem tired."
"I am tired," she said, and it wasn't even a lie.
He accepted it, or at least he pretended to, but she could see the small crease that had settled between his brows, the one that hadn't been there before the cruise.
He kissed her cheek on his way out and told her he'd call later.
She didn't respond.
The moment the door shut behind him, Katherine pulled out her phone.
Zane picked up on the second ring. "Let me guess."
"He's not coming home tonight," she said. "Emergency at the office, apparently."
"Erica hasn't mentioned anything to me, but that doesn't mean much." There was a pause on the line, papers shuffling somewhere on his end. "I'll have someone keep an eye on her tonight. If she leaves the house, I'll know."
"Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet." His voice softened slightly. "How are you holding up?"
"I'm fine," she said, and this time it was a lie, though a small one. "I have somewhere to be, actually."
"Where?"
"My parents'." She answered. There was a brief silence on the line before Zane finally said. “Good luck.” He said, knowing she would need it.
“Thank you.” She said in all honesty because she truly appreciated him.
*******
Three hours later, Katherine drove through the large iron gates of the mansion she grew up in, her heart beating loudly.
She hadn’t been this nervous since the day she introduced Lucas to her parents.
They never liked him.
Then, she thought it was because he didn’t come from the same social class as she did. Now, she could see that her parents probably saw something she didn’t.
If only she listened.
Now, that she had returned with bad news, she wasn’t sure how to break it to them yet. She had not called ahead because she didn’t trust herself to explain properly over the phone.
The staff let her in without question, and by the time she reached the sitting room, her mother was already on her feet.
"Kate!" Her mother's surprise was immediate, her eyes moving over her daughter like she was checking to see if she was seeing correctly. "We weren't expecting you."
Her father walked out of the kitchen with a glass of orange juice in his hand, just as surprised as her mother. “Did something happen?”
“No, Dad.” Kate chuckled, shaking her head.
Deep down, it hurt her to see her parents reacting this way but she knew she couldn’t blame them.
She barely visited since she didn’t want things to be awkward for Lucas.
"Everything's fine," Katherine said, forcing a smile as she crossed the room to hug them both. "I just wanted to see you."
Her mother studied her for a while once they pulled out of the hug. "Where's Lucas?"
The question landed heavily as Katherine thought of just telling them the truth but, she stopped herself.
Her father would have Lucas ruined in seconds and that wasn’t the kind of revenge she wanted.
So, she smiled and answered casually.
"Work," she said simply. "You know how busy he is."
Her mother nodded and led her to a seat. They spent the next thirty minutes catching up on everything they had missed while she had been away. Everything but Lucas’s infidelity.
It was her father who eventually asked the question she'd come to answer.
"So," he said, setting his cup down. "What brings you here on a Tuesday afternoon, unannounced?"
Katherine took a breath and met her parents' eyes.
"I want to come back," she said. "To the company. I want to take my place in the family business."
- Writer
