Chapter 17
CADE
I came tonight for my wife.
Not for the fund, though the fund will have whatever it asks me for. Sienna is standing up in front of hundreds of people tonight, and whatever I am to her now, she is not going to look out at that room and find nobody in it who came for her.
I am near the front when Pierce finds me, close enough to the stage that Sienna will see me if she looks and far enough from the lectern that she will not have to deal with me unless she chooses to.
The foundation chair is arguing with someone about the microphones.
People are still coming in from the reception, and I have been pretending to listen to a man from Boston when Pierce appears at my shoulder.
“Ashley’s here.”
I stop hearing Boston altogether. “Where?”
“Someone saw her follow Sienna into the ladies’ room off the mezzanine.”
I am already moving.
Pierce says my name behind me, but nothing he could say would make me slow down. I take the stairs two at a time and come out into the mezzanine corridor with my heart beating hard enough to feel in my throat.
The corridor is empty. The door is shut. I stop three feet from it, because what exactly am I supposed to do? Walk into a ladies’ room? Stand here like security? Sienna did not ask for my protection. Sienna has asked, in writing, for a life without me.
That does not mean I am leaving.
I stand there and listen for anything that sounds wrong. Raised voices. Something breaking. Sienna saying my name. There is nothing, and every second I spend staring at the door makes it harder not to open it anyway.
Then the handle turns.
Sienna walks out.
Plum. It fits close at her waist and leaves absolutely nothing apologetic about the curve of her hips. Christ. I have seen my wife naked. I have had my mouth on her body. I should be capable of looking at her in a dress without forgetting how to breathe.
Apparently I am not.
Whatever composure I planned to have ready for the first time we saw each other tonight, it is not available.
She stops when she sees me. There is color high in her cheeks that was not put there with a brush, and her chin is up, and her hands are perfectly steady at her sides, and she looks like she has just walked out of a fight she won.
“Cade.”
“I heard Ashley was here.” My voice comes out lower than I intend. “Somebody saw her follow you in. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
She means it. I have heard two years of her fine, and this one is different.
“Do you want her removed?”
That surprises her.
“From the gala,” I say. “Say the word and she’s gone.”
Sienna looks back at the closed bathroom door, then at me. “No. I’m giving my speech.”
“Those two things are not mutually exclusive.”
“I know.” Her mouth almost moves. Not quite a smile. “I can handle Ashley.”
I believe her. It does nothing to make me want Ashley within a mile of her.
“Fine. But if she bothers you again?—”
“Cade.”
I stop.
She is looking at me, waiting.
I had another sentence ready. Something about Pierce, security, making sure Ashley stayed away from her. Instead I look at Sienna in that dress again and lose whatever remained of my judgment.
“You’re beautiful.”
The color that was already high in her cheeks climbs.
I do not take it back.
Her eyes search mine for a second. “What?”
“You’re beautiful.” Pretending I am not staring would be insulting to both of us at this point.
She starts to say something and doesn’t.
“I have to go.”
“I know.”
She starts toward the stairs, then stops and looks back at me.
“Thank you.”
I do not know whether she means Ashley, the offer, or something else. I do not ask and ruin it.
“Sienna.”
She waits.
I want to tell her to be careful. I want to tell her I will be right there.
I want to ask what Ashley said that put that color in her face.
I have already spent too much of our marriage deciding what Sienna needed without asking her, so I settle for the one thing I can give her without taking anything in return.
“I came tonight for you.”
Her eyes hold mine.
Then the bathroom door opens behind her.
Ashley steps into the corridor.
Sienna turns at the sound. Ashley stops when she sees me standing there, then looks from my face to Sienna’s dress and back again. Her face is not under control. In all the years I have watched her manage it, I have never seen that.
Sienna looks at her once.
Then she looks back at me. “I should go.”
“I’ll be downstairs.”
She nods and walks away, and I watch my wife go down the corridor in the color I will be remembering for the rest of my life.
Ashley says, “Cade.”
I turn.
She opens her mouth, takes one look at my face, and closes it again.
Then her chin lifts. “You have no idea what she said to me.”
“I don’t care.”
That lands.
“You might if you heard it.”
“No.” I step closer. I do not raise my voice. I do not need to. “Whatever she said to you, you stay away from her tonight.”
Ashley stares at me. “You’re taking her side without even knowing what happened?”
“Yes.”
For once there is no calculation required.
Her face hardens. “Of course.”
She starts past me.
“Ashley.”
She stops.
“If you have a problem with me, bring it to me. You do not go through my wife.”
Her laugh is short and ugly. “Your wife served you divorce papers.”
“I am aware.”
“Then stop calling her that.”
“No.”
She looks at me for a long second, and I see the anger settle rather than leave. She walks away, heels striking hard against the tile, and disappears down the stairs into the crowd coming up from the reception.
Pierce is waiting near the bottom of the stairs when I come down.
“Find Ashley.”
His eyebrows rise.
“Quietly. I don’t want anything interfering with Sienna’s speech. Just find her and keep eyes on her.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t know.”
That is what I hate most.
Pierce goes. The room is filling now, the noise changing as people take their places and turn toward the stage.
I move back toward the front instead of my assigned table farther back.
Sienna is going to stand up there under her grandfather’s name, and I am not spending it hidden behind two hundred heads pretending distance is respect.
Pierce returns while the foundation chair is checking the microphone. One look at him is enough.
“You can’t find her.”
He shakes his head. “She went through the reception and into the service corridor beside the bar. After that, no.”
I look toward the doors.
Ashley has never lost gracefully in her life.
I take a seat at one of the front tables, near the center, close enough to the stage that Sienna will not have to look for me and close enough that I can reach her if I have to. When she appears at the side of the room and starts toward the lectern, I watch my wife.
And I watch every door.