"But I heard Elias's got a childhood sweetheart he's soft on. And word is he doesn't even want the Hale girl, does he?"
Someone nearby scoffed, ice clinking in his glass. "She's the only blood the old Don's got left. If he won't have her, there's a line of made men who'd kill for the chance."
"That Elena Everett from the Five Families is no small thing either. And they say Nora Vale's been carrying a torch for her for years now."
The murmuring swelled around me, low and constant beneath the chandeliers, until someone leaned in and said quickly,
"No telling who she names in the end. But one thing's certain. It won't be Lucian Ashford."
"Right. Heard he went dark for years. Comes off unhinged. Creepy. The kind of quiet that puts a chill in the room."
...
The talk drifted to Elias's ears, and his expression darkened by the second. One hand rose, slow, his thumb dragging along the underside of his signet ring before he smoothed the lapel of his jacket flat.
Meanwhile Elena and Nora stood at my side, helping me receive the Family heads as they crossed the threshold. Elena straightened his pocket square each time another name of standing entered the hall. Nora said little, only pressed his lips flat and turned his gaze toward the tall windows whenever the conversation drifted toward the man I would marry.
What I hadn't expected was to spot Theo Vale in a corner of the banquet hall.
She stood tucked away there in a cocktail dress, her makeup flawless. A gift box cradled in her hands like tribute laid at an altar.
A few minutes earlier, she'd posted a new update.
"Booked the whole place tonight, gift's ready, celebrating the man I love most on his rise~"
I smiled and gave the post a like.
Too bad the one rising tonight wasn't Elias at all.
The gathering began. My father rose at the head of the room and spoke slowly, and the whole hall went quiet the way a room goes quiet only for a dying Don.
"Tonight, I have a matter to settle on behalf of the Hale Family."
Every gaze in the room swung toward me.
They all knew what this was. The naming of the heir. And with it, my marriage. More fawning looks slid, deliberately or not, toward Elias. Men who wanted to be standing close to the winner when the crown came down.
I even shot Elias a shy, bashful glance on purpose.
The knot in his chest finally loosened. He looked perfectly composed, certain the whole of the Hale name was about to be laid at his feet.
Every eye fixed on my father's face, waiting for him to name exactly who would sit at the right hand of the Family.
My father spoke slowly.
"The one who will take over as head of the Hale Family is a man I watched grow up. Upright in character. Without equal in ability."
At that, Elias drew his shoulders back, higher and higher.
After all, the only two my father had watched grow up were him and Lucian Ashford. And Lucian, silent and brooding by nature, had never once been a man my father took seriously.
"What's more, he and my only daughter, Miles, are deeply in love, their bond profound."
"So, along with taking his place at the head of the Family, he has also entered into a blood oath of marriage with Miles."
Elias was already rising slowly to his feet, his face flush with triumph.
My father swept a mocking glance over him and spoke slowly.
"That man is the heir of the Ashford Family. Lucian Ashford."
The room did not breathe. No glass moved. The fawning men who had drifted toward Elias found, all at once, that they were standing a step away from him, though not one of them could have said when they stepped back.
"Next month, you are all welcome at the wedding of my daughter and Lucian Ashford."
Fingers laced with Lucian's, sharp in his tailored suit, I walked slowly up onto the stage. He had gone utterly, unnaturally still at my side, that half-second stillness of a man about to move, and the whole room seemed to feel it, the way you feel the air change before a storm breaks.
