Page 37 of The Marriage Pact
The woman nodded. “And you must have a lot of happy memories there, too, Mr. Lancaster, going back and forth between here and there,” the woman said.
Alex felt suddenly awkward. In truth, he’d never even been to San Francisco. He couldn’t very well tell them he and Kaitlyn had been apart for the best part of ten years. It would take far too long to explain.
“Well, I—” he began, but, to his relief, Kaitlyn interrupted.
“I preferred to come to New York. Ceramics are really taking off here. There’s a definite buzz on the scene. I’ve got an exhibition coming up soon. You should come and see it.”
The woman smiled and nodded. “I’d be delighted,” she replied.
With the pleasantries over, Alex and Kaitlyn moved to the next circle of guests.
“Well done,” Alex whispered. Kaitlyn had saved him from making the sort of awkward mistake he prided himself on avoiding.
She smiled at him. “Was it the right thing to say?”
“Totally,” he replied.
Investors, politicians, journalists… all of them had their five minutes, and it seemed to Alex as though the evening was going well. Kaitlyn looked stunning, and everyone was complimenting her outfit.
“You’ll be setting trends,” an adjunct from the Department of Commerce said.
Alex was impressed with Kaitlyn. She smiled at all the right things, listened in the right places, and gave opinions without being argumentative.
“I think this is going well,” Alex said as they paused for a moment between one group of guests and another.
A waiter topped up their champagne, and several platters of hors d’oeuvres passed them by. Alex was about to lead Kaitlyn toward the next group when an unwelcome sight greeted him across the room, making straight for them.
“Alex, darling, how good to see you. And there I was, thinking you’d been ignoring me,” Malwida Ree said, fluttering her eyelids as she ran her fingers down Alex’s lapel.
Alex grimaced. Malwida, despite appearances to the contrary, worked forCitadel,one of New York’s most influential financial papers. She specialized in take-down articles, the sort of spreads that brought down companies and wiped millions off stock exchanges. Trained at Harvard and Yale, she could be both a formidable opponent and a necessary ally. Which she chose was entirely up to her, a power she wielded with alarming regularity. Alex had been dreading seeing her, but somehow she alwaysmanaged to find a way into these sorts of events, whether invited or not. That evening, she was dressed in a silver gown, with black elbow-length gloves, and a pair of thick-rimmed gold spectacles perched on her nose, her hair tied up in a bun with a silver ribbon, and a look of anticipation on her face, as though she was expecting to land herself a scoop.
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about, Malwida,” Alex said, trying hard not to grimace.
“Is it going ahead, then? I heard you’d sorted everything already. And now this. Something must have gone wrong,” Malwida said, raising her eyebrows.
She certainly liked to cut to the chase.
“May I introduce my fiancée, Kaitlyn?” Alex said, doing his best politician’s impression and avoiding Malwida’s question.
Kaitlyn smiled. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” she said, though Alex knew she wouldn’t have said that if she’d known the truth.
He’d forgotten to warn her about Malwida. She had a way of making people say what she wanted them to say, then writing about it.
“I didn’t know youhada fiancée, Alex,” Malwida said, raising her eyebrows for a second time as she took Kaitlyn’s hand in hers.
“Well, I do have a life outside the office,” Alex replied.
He was waiting for Malwida’s move. Something was coming. She’d try to catch Kaitlyn off guard. The talk about San Francisco had been close…
“It’s a brave woman who marries a man like Alex Lancaster. How did you two meet?”
Kaitlyn glanced at Alex before she spoke. It was an innocent enough question.
“In high school. We’ve known one another forever, really,” Kaitlyn replied.
“But we don’t know anythingaboutyou. He’s certainly been keeping you quiet. How long have you been in New York? I must say, I’m surprised not to have known you. But you’ll know all about the problems at Lancaster Holdings over the past few years. A lot of good people were let go. There’s still bitterness around,” Malwida said.
Alex glared at her. She knew how to twist the knife. The redundancies had been voluntary. No one had been sacked. They’d come at a time when investment was cautious post-pandemic. Now, there was more optimism in the air. Money was being invested again and jobs created.
