21. Gianna
— ? —
Gianna
I was about to bail at the last minute.
The cattle auction gala felt like too much.
The same annual gala where I’d met Orion three years ago, where I’d hidden by the bar feeling invisible, where my whole life had changed in a single evening.
Too many memories. Too many people who would be watching, whispering, wondering what had really happened between us.
But Maddie had been persuasive.
“Hiding lets the rumors win,” she’d said on the phone, her voice crisp with certainty. “You walk in there looking stunning on my son’s arm, and you remind every person in that room that you’re exactly where you belong.”
So here I was. Four months after Alex was born, squeezed into a gown the color of midnight that somehow made me feel powerful instead of exposed. The dress hugged curves I hadn’t had before pregnancy and skimmed over the ones I was still getting used to.
When I’d walked out of the bedroom, Orion had gone completely still. Just stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped everything. His coffee cup had frozen halfway to his mouth.
“You’re going to spill that,” I’d said.
“I don’t care.” His voice had come out rough. “Gianna. You look-”
“Don’t finish that sentence. I’ll think you’re just being nice.”
“I’m never just being nice. I’m being honest. And honestly, I’m going to have to fight every man at this gala tonight.”
“That sounds exhausting.”
“Worth it.”
I’d felt heat climb up my neck and told myself it was the dress.
Orion hadn’t left my side all night.
His hand rested on the small of my back as we moved through the crowd.
The heat of his palm through the thin fabric of my dress was doing things to my concentration that I refused to acknowledge.
He deflected questions with easy charm, redirected conversations that got too personal, and introduced me to people I should know without ever making me feel like I needed his help.
And he didn’t check his phone once.
I caught myself noticing that. Keeping track. Waiting for the moment when something more important would pull his attention away.
It didn’t come.
Instead, every time I glanced at him, I found him already looking at me. Like I was the only person in a room full of people trying to get his attention.
“Stop that,” I murmured during a lull in conversation.
“Stop what?”
I didn’t have words for it.
“Whatever you’re doing right now.”
“Okay,” he said simply. And kept looking.
We were near the bar, talking to a cattle rancher from Fredericksburg, when I saw her.
Demi.
She was across the room on the arm of a man I didn’t recognize. The cattle buyer, presumably. Her loophole through the door. She was wearing red, because of course she was. A dress that demanded attention and a smile like a blade.
Our eyes met across the crowd. She smiled wider.
I felt Orion stiffen beside me, felt his hand press more firmly against my back, protective.
Maddie appeared at my other elbow like she’d been summoned. “Come with me. There’s a woman from the scholarship board you need to meet, and I need to be nowhere near your sister for the next ten minutes or I’ll do something the papers will enjoy.”
“I struck her name,” she said as she steered me across the room, furious. “Not his table. That’s on me.”
“It’s fine.”
“It is not fine. Do you want her removed?”
I thought about it. It would be easy. One word to Maddie and Demi would be escorted out before she could cause any more damage.
But I wanted to see what he did.
“Not yet,” I said.
From across the room I watched Demi drift toward the bar and watched her find him. She leaned in, saying something I couldn’t hear, her body angled toward Orion in a way that was just slightly too intimate. Too familiar. The way she’d leaned in at every party for three years.
My fingers tightened on my champagne glass. I made myself loosen them.
Orion’s face was stone. He said something short, too quiet for me to catch, and walked away, straight to me.
He didn’t look back at her once. His eyes found mine across the room and stayed there, like she’d already ceased to exist.
“Let’s get some air,” he said, taking my hand.
We found a quiet corner on the terrace, the city glittering beyond the balcony rail. The noise of the party faded to a murmur behind us.
“What did she say?” I asked.
His jaw was tight. “Nothing worth repeating.”
“Tell me anyway.”
He was quiet for a moment. Then, “She told me to stop pretending to be someone I’m not. That I’d get tired of playing house in a tiny apartment and come back to the real world.”
The words landed like stones in my chest.
“And what did you say?”
“That my wife’s world is the only one I want to live in.” His eyes met mine, dark and fierce. “And if she comes near either of us again, every door in this industry closes.”
Pride twisted hot through me. I reached for his hand and squeezed it.
“Thank you,” I said.
“You don’t have to thank me for that.”
“I know. But I’m thanking you anyway.”
We stayed on the terrace for a while longer, watching the city lights, letting the tension slowly drain away. His thumb traced slow circles on the back of my hand, and I let him. Let myself lean into his shoulder. Let myself remember what it felt like to be on the same side as someone.
When we finally went back inside, I felt steadier.
Of course, that’s when Demi decided to make a scene.
She was near the exit, her voice carrying across the suddenly quiet room. The cattle buyer was trying to pull her toward the door, but she was having none of it.
“Everyone knows you married beneath you, Orion!” Her voice was shrill with alcohol and wounded pride. “Everyone knows she trapped you! I was the one you were supposed to choose!”
The room went silent. Every eye turned toward us.
I felt the weight of all those stares. The judgment, curiosity, people who would talk about this moment for months.
Orion let go of my hand. For one terrible second, I thought he was going to walk away. Going to leave me standing there alone while he-
He walked to the podium. Took the microphone from the startled event coordinator and spoke.
“My wife didn’t trap me.” His voice was certain.
Carrying to every corner of the room. “I chased her. I chose her at this gala three years ago instead of you.” He paused.
Met my eyes across the crowd. “I’m choosing her again tonight.
I’ll choose her every day I’ve got. Find someone who chooses you too. ”
The room was absolutely silent. And then, from somewhere near the back, someone started clapping, then another. Then a wave of applause that made my eyes sting. He set down the mic and walked back to me while the room erupted in murmurs.
“Ready to go home?”
I couldn’t speak. So I just nodded and let him lead me out, past the gaping faces, past the whispers, past my sister being escorted toward the exit by security.
We were in the parking lot, almost to the truck, when I saw her.
Demi was standing by the valet stand, heels in her hand, waiting for a car that hadn’t come. Her mascara was smudged. Her perfect hair had come loose on one side.
She didn’t look at Orion. She looked at me with those drunk eyes.
“He’ll get bored,” she said. “Powerful men like him always do. He just has to perform a little bit.”
I didn’t answer and got in the truck. Let Orion close the door behind me. He pulled out of the parking lot. The city slid past the windows in a blur of light and shadow.
Two miles of silence before he spoke.
“You heard her.”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe her?”
I wanted to say no immediately, confidently, without a moment’s hesitation.
But I didn’t say it fast enough. And we both heard the silence where the answer should have been.