Chapter 1 - WHO TOUCHED HER
Vivian Sloan had Mallory Carter by the jaw.
“I said no garlic!”
Before Mallory could twist away, Vivian shoved several raw pieces toward her mouth.
Mallory gagged.
Her eyes watered instantly.
She grabbed Vivian’s wrist.
“Stop—”
Vivian leaned closer.
“Eat it, you useless idiot!”
Mallory jerked her head free and stumbled against the edge of a dining table.
She bent forward, coughing violently.
Around them, the ultra-luxury Manhattan dining room went silent.
Crystal glasses.
White orchids.
Men in tailored tuxedos.
Women in silk and diamonds.
Nobody moved.
Vivian followed her.
“Go back to the kitchen.”
Mallory pressed one hand to her throat.
Her face was red.
Breathing uneven.
But she straightened.
She did not apologize.
That seemed to enrage Vivian more than coughing had.
Then a chair scraped loudly inside the private dining room.
The door opened.
Daniel Carter stepped out.
Dark suit.
Dark hair.
Controlled expression.
Behind him, several large men in black suits rose from the private table.
Everyone in the room knew Daniel Carter.
Some knew him as a billionaire real-estate and hospitality investor.
Others knew the name in a different way.
The Carter family had spent forty years occupying the part of New York business people referred to carefully.
Too legitimate to call criminals casually.
Too feared to call ordinary.
Daniel looked across the dining room.
Saw Mallory.
Saw the tears in her eyes.
Saw her hand against her throat.
His face turned ice-cold.
“Who touched her?”
Vivian froze.
Daniel crossed the room.
Not toward Vivian.
Toward Mallory.
He placed both hands gently on Mallory’s shoulders.
“Baby. Look at me.”
Mallory looked up.
“I’m okay.”
“You’re not.”
Vivian stared.
Then pointed at Mallory.
“You called this broke trash ‘baby’?”
Daniel slowly turned his head.
The room felt smaller.
He kept one hand on Mallory’s back.
Vivian’s voice weakened.
“Daniel?”
He looked directly at her.
Then said the sentence Mallory had spent twenty-three months keeping private.
“She is my wife.”
A champagne glass slipped from someone’s hand.
Vivian went pale.
Mallory closed her eyes.
The secret was over.
Then another voice came from the private room.
An older man.
Low.
Angry.
“You were never supposed to tell anyone tonight.”
Mallory opened her eyes.
Daniel looked toward the doorway.
May you like
His uncle Victor Carter stood there.
And the expression on his face told Mallory that Vivian was not the only person furious about the marriage.
