Chapter 2 - The Man in the DoorwayA tall man in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit walked down the center aisle, holding the hand of a two-year-old girl in a black velvet coat. Camera flashes went off from the press gallery near the back — actual press, at a private funeral — and the whole cathedral went silent in a way I'd never heard a room go silent before.
It was Marcus Sterling.
Everyone in that room recognized the name. His firm had just closed on Julian's biggest corporate client two months earlier — a deal that had been all over the trade papers.
Paige's handbag slipped out of her hand and hit the marble floor hard enough to echo.
Marcus walked past the stunned rows of guests, past Julian, past Paige, straight to me. He slid an arm around my waist and pressed a kiss to my temple, easy and unhurried, like we did this every day. Because we did.
"Sorry we're late," he said, his voice carrying clean across the silent chapel. "Our daughter wanted to pick out grandpa's favorite white lilies on the way over."
Our daughter. Clara. Two years old, blue-eyed, reaching her arms up toward me before I'd even fully turned around.
"Mommy! I got flowers for Grandpa!"
I lifted her onto my hip and pressed my face into her hair for one second, just one, before I made myself look back up.
Julian's eyes went from Marcus, to Clara, to me, and back to Marcus. "Mr. — Mr. Sterling." His voice actually shook. "This has to be some kind of mistake. Natalie's an accountant. She's not — she can't be —"
Marcus turned to him slowly.
"You're speaking to Natalie Sterling," he said, each word deliberate. "Managing partner of the Sterling-Reyes Global Fund. And chief executive officer of her late father's manufacturing company."
Paige grabbed Julian's arm to stay upright. "Wait." Her voice cracked. "Natalie owns the manufacturing company? That's — that's the company we signed our distribution contract with!"
"And that contract," Marcus said, without raising his voice at all, "carries a strict ethics and conduct clause. My wife and I have spent the last three days going through your billing records, Mr. Cross. Along with the unauthorized equipment your company's been diverting off the books."
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Every trace of Julian's smirk was gone.
For the first time since he'd walked in that morning bragging to anyone who'd listen, he looked like a man who finally understood exactly how much trouble he was standing in.
