Chapter 19 - THE MAN AT THE GALA
A year later, Claire attended a philanthropic tech gala in Manhattan.
Black dress.
Minimal jewelry.
Nina beside her like an armed spirit guide.
The ballroom was elegant, tasteful, and blissfully fully paid for.
Halfway through the evening, Nina stiffened.
“What?” Claire asked.
“Tuxedo. Four o’clock.”
Claire turned.
Ethan.
Not dazzling now.
Not ruined exactly.
Just diminished.
He looked older.
Sharper in the wrong ways.
A little desperate beneath polish.
He approached slowly.
Nina stepped between them.
Claire touched her arm.
“It’s fine.”
Ethan stopped six feet away.
He looked at Claire for a long moment.
Then said, “You look good.”
Claire almost smiled.
“So do you. Relative to the circumstances.”
He actually laughed.
For one second, she saw the man she once nearly married.
Then only the residue.
“I wanted to say something,” he said.
“That sounds dangerous.”
“I was angry.”
Claire lifted a brow.
“At the wedding? In court? During the identity misuse? You’ll have to narrow it down.”
He exhaled.
“You think I’m a monster.”
Claire considered.
“No.”
The answer surprised him.
“What, then?”
“A man who kept choosing the version of himself that cost someone else more.”
He looked away.
“For what it’s worth, I did love you.”
Claire believed him.
That was the strangest part.
She believed he loved her in the way he loved anything radiant enough to improve his reflection.
She said, “That may be true. But it was never safer than your appetite.”
He swallowed.
Then quietly:
“I didn’t think you’d really burn it all down.”
Claire looked around the gala.
The lights.
The donors.
The clean lines.
The staff moving efficiently through a room not held together by stolen grace.
“I didn’t burn it down,” she said. “I stopped paying for the fire.”
He had no answer.
He nodded once.
Then left.
Nina watched him go and whispered, “I wanted more suffering in his face.”
Claire smiled.
May you like
“You’ve grown bloodthirsty.”
“I learned from excellence.”
