BOUND BY NECESSITY

Chapter 4: The Family Test

[SELENE'S POV]

The next day, we were invited to the Smiths' family dinner party. Obviously it has to be my introduction to the Smiths' family.

I decided before we even got there that I was not going to let one single Smith see me sweat that night, no matter what they threw at me across that dinner table.

The dining room at Harrison's house was magnificent, with a table long enough to sit twenty people and a chandelier that probably cost more than I would make in ten years. Without doubts, money works in here.

Immediately we arrived, every face at that table turned to look at me the second I walked in beside Crane, and I felt each pair of eyes like a hand pressing down on my shoulders.

Then I saw the first man sitting at the head of that table, because everything that happened that night started and ended with him.

It was Mr. Harrison Smith, who had built this whole company from brick by brick, deal by deal, and he did not hand power to anybody who had not earned his trust first.

He decided who got the money, who got the name, and who got left behind, and every single person at that table knew it, which is why the whole room seemed to breathe a little slower whenever he opened his mouth.

I squeezed Crane's arm once, just to remind myself I was allowed to be standing there, and I put on the same smile I used on nervous brides and angry clients.

That is to fake it instead, and nobody can tell the difference.

Another man rose from his seat before we even sat down, who was smiling wide enough to show every tooth.

This was Nicholas, Crane's cousin, and the person with the most to gain if Crane failed at exactly what we were there to prove.

Nicholas had spent years being the nephew who showed up early, stayed late, and said all the right things in front of Harrison, all while quietly building the kind of support that made him dangerous. He did not need to shout to get what he wanted. He just needed Crane to trip, and obviously he was his worst enemy, or probably maybe his bully, at any slightest chance he gets to make Crane miserable.

"Wow! Look who we've got here. So let's know, how'd you two meet, exactly?" he said, pulling out the chair across from mine like it was the easiest question in the world.

"Crane's usually so private about that stuff."

"We met at an event I coordinated," I said. "He was inspecting the building, so we started talking."

"Talking about what?" Nicholas asked, leaning forward with a grin that did not match the expressions in his eyes. "Crane doesn't really do small talk."

"Ask him," I said, and I looked over at Crane instead of scrambling for an answer, because two people telling the same lie with too much detail always sounds more rehearsed than two people who trust each other enough to let one of them handle it.

I did not get more than a minute to feel good about that answer before the room went quiet immediately when someone everybody was not expecting walked in.

I looked up and saw a woman standing in the doorway, with a tall, polished figure and aura that looked like one who belonged on a magazine cover.

I did not know her yet, but I would learn fast that she had once been the woman everyone in that family expected to sit exactly where I was sitting. She came from money just as old as the Smiths, and when she left Crane, she did not just break his heart in private, she broke it in front of people who never let him forget it.

Whatever history sat between them, it was not yet over, and I could feel that the second she walked in.

Crane's whole body changed beside me as his knuckles went stiff as he adjusted uneasily on his seat, distracting himself with the meal in front of him rather than looking at the lady.

"Victoria," Nicholas said, offering her a hand of warm welcome.

"I wasn't expecting this much of a banquet," she said, though something in her voice told me she knew exactly where she was walking into.

Harrison waved her toward an empty seat like her showing up was completely normal, and I understood right then that nothing about tonight was an accident.

Somebody at that table had planned for her to walk in at the worst possible moment, and I was fairly sure it was not Crane.

The dinner moved along after that, with plates coming and going and small talks bouncing around the table, but I could feel Harrison watching me the whole time, waiting for his moment.

He found it somewhere between the main course and dessert.

"So dear, we've never gotten to know how much you've known my grandson. So what's Crane's mother's maiden name?" Harrison asked, out of nowhere, setting his fork down slowly, like he already expected me to get tensed and freeze at his question.

I did not know it because nobody had told me, and Crane's hand was still on the table beside mine.

"I don't ask him to carry around stories about his family or mine," I said, keeping my voice light and easy. "I ask him what actually matters to him. Names on paper don't tell you who a person is, right, Mr. Harrison?"

Immediately I reverted the question back to him; his mouth twitched in annoyance, and he let the question slide before moving on to something else.

Nicholas was not done, though. He waited until the room relaxed again, and then he leaned back in his chair with the kind of smile a person wears right before they say something cruel.

"Funny, isn't it," he said, looking straight at Crane, "how fast you moved on after Victoria. It must not have hurt as much as everyone thought it did when she left you for…"

"Nicholas," Harrison interrupted him immediately, but before he could do that, the damage was already done.

Crane's hand curled into a fist on the tablecloth, and I watched as a dangerous anger boiled inside of him.

I knew if he was allowed, he would get up from there and leave, or better still, fight his cousin brother man-to-man. For causing him such embarrassment.

I didn't hesitate as I gently reached under the table and grabbed his hand, lacing my fingers through his where nobody else could see, and I leaned into his shoulder like a wife comforting her husband over an old, tired joke.

"Ignore him," I said softly, close enough that only Crane could hear it. "He wants a reaction, but don't give him one."

Crane's hand tightened around mine, hard, and for one second I felt something in him let go, something that had nothing to do with the show we were putting on for the table, and it worked as Nicholas dropped it, and the conversation moved on to something else.

But Crane's hand stayed wrapped around mine long after the danger had passed, and that felt too real for two people who were supposed to be pretending.

A little later, I excused myself from the table to find the bathroom, needing just thirty seconds away from them.

I was still drying my hands in the tub when I heard the door open behind me, and I turned to find Victoria standing there, with her arms folded, watching me the way you watch someone you already feel sorry for.

"You should know what you're walking into," she said as I jerked and turned immediately.

"Every woman who gets close to Crane pays for it eventually, and girl, you don't want to know that. I also got my own piece of cake."

"That sounds like your story," I said. "And not mine."

"It will be," she said, sounding more like she is warning me ahead of the danger looming ahead.

"Ask him about the fire at the old firm sometime and ask him what he lost and who he blamed for it." She said.

She walked out before I could even get to ask her anything else, leaving me standing there with more questions than I had walked in with.

I did not get long to sit with what she said when Harrison called everyone back into the main room a few minutes later, and the second I stepped back inside, I could feel that something had shifted while I was gone.

"You two will move into Crane's townhouse this week," Crane’s grandfather announced, loud enough for the whole room to hear, like the matter was already settled before anyone got a say in it.

"And we'll host a formal family celebration within forty-eight hours and let everyone see that this marriage is real."

What the f**k is this man saying? That is totally impossible; I mean, I wasn't expecting all of these at the first dinner with them. Not moving in already with Crane.

"That's not…" I immediately want to interrupt him when Crane's hand found my waist before I could even finish, and before I understood what was happening, he pulled me against him and kissed me, right there in front of his entire family, like it was the easiest and most natural thing in the world.

Honestly, I totally forgot every single word I had to say.