1 - THE MAN WHO CALLED ME HIS FIANCÉE
For several seconds, I forgot the champagne soaking through my dress.
Everyone in the ballroom had turned toward the man behind me.
Roman Vale.
Even I knew that name.
Anyone who lived in New York and occasionally read a newspaper knew it.
Vale Meridian controlled commercial real estate, logistics, private equity, and enough hotels to make half the people in that ballroom either dependent on him or terrified of becoming his competition.
He was thirty-eight.
Unmarried.
Private.
And famous for walking out of negotiations worth hundreds of millions without raising his voice.
Damian’s face changed instantly.
“Mr. Vale.”
Roman did not look at him.
He looked at me.
His dark suit was perfectly cut, his expression unreadable.
Then his eyes dropped to the champagne dripping from my dress.
Something cold entered his face.
“Are you hurt?”
I almost laughed.
“No.”
Victoria recovered before Damian did.
She smiled brightly.
“I think there’s been some misunderstanding.”
Roman finally looked at her.
“What part?”
Victoria’s smile weakened.
“It was a joke.”
Roman glanced at Damian.
“Was she laughing?”
Nobody answered.
I felt every eye in the room.
Then my brain finally caught up with the one word that made absolutely no sense.
Fiancée.
I turned toward him.
“I’m sorry?”
Roman’s gaze met mine.
“Play along.”
He said it quietly enough that only I heard.
My shock must have shown.
He continued under his breath.
“You can walk away if you want. But if you stay, Damian will spend the next ten minutes wondering why the woman he humiliated is standing beside someone his entire firm has been trying to impress for three years.”
That was specific.
Too specific.
“You know who he is?”
Roman’s mouth barely moved.
“I know exactly who he is.”
Damian stepped forward.
“Ava, what is this?”
Roman’s hand settled lightly at the middle of my back.
Not possessive.
Just enough to signal that I was not standing alone.
I looked at Damian.
Six months earlier, I would have begged to understand why I had stopped being enough.
Now he looked almost nervous.
For the first time, I understood how much of his cruelty depended on believing I had nowhere else to stand.
So I smiled.
Not at Roman.
At Damian.
“My fiancé, apparently.”
Victoria’s face went completely still.
Someone nearby inhaled sharply.
Damian laughed.
Too loudly.
“This is ridiculous.”
Roman looked at him.
“No, Damian.”
His voice remained calm.
“Pouring champagne over a woman who helped pay for your education in a ballroom full of clients was ridiculous.”
My heart stopped.
Damian went pale.
I had never told Roman that.
I had never spoken to Roman Vale in my life.
At least I didn’t think I had.
“How do you know that?” I whispered.
Roman looked at me.
May you like
“Because six weeks ago, your name appeared in a financial file that Damian has been trying very hard to keep me from seeing.”
And suddenly the humiliation in the ballroom was no longer the biggest problem Damian had.
