This time, both of my stepbrother’s eyebrows raised. “Does that mean there is an ‘us?’_”
“Let’s just get dinner over and done with,” I suggested, trying desperately to weasel out of having to answer. “If we survive, then we can have that talk.”
“Your wish is my command,” Preston replied, escorting me to the dining room where our parents were waiting. I bet he said that to every single girl he wanted to fuck…
The table was set with the kind of care and exactness that almost seemed compulsive. Preston was nice enough to pull out a chair for me, but as I sat down, I couldn’t even figure out where to put my hands. I didn’t want to ruin the delicate flower that had been somehow magically crafted from an ordinary cloth napkin, and God help me if I moved one of the pieces of silverware. They were placed at an exact distance from the edge of the table, each one gleaming as if it had never been used…
And knowing where I was, it probably hadn’t.
Despite my discomfort, I did my best to settle in as I pondered the need for two different forks. Food appeared in front of me almost as if by magic, flown to my table by a man in the cleanest pair of white gloves I’d ever seen in my life. The plate was a work of art. It would be a shame to tear it apart, but I was willing to face the peril. My momentary bliss was only broken as my mother spoke up.
“So, Preston, how is Madison working out for you?”
I rolled my eyes as my mother glanced at Preston over the rim of her wine glass. I knew what she was trying to do. She was hoping for some hesitation on Preston’s part, some sign that I wasn’t very good at my job.
I had no clue what my mother had against me, but whatever it was, she loved to take me down a peg at every opportunity.
But Preston didn’t hesitate. “She’s wonderful, really,” he answered as he cut his meat. We were having some kind of chicken stuffed with dates and herbs. “Best PA I’ve ever had.”
“Better than that Jane girl?” his father asked. “I thought she was working out rather nicely. It seemed to me that the two of you were… close.”
I looked at Mr. Harvey across the table. He was damn near the spitting image of his son, though with a touch of steel at his temples that made him seem more distinguished and intimidating. He had hawkish, amber-colored eyes that never left his son’s for one moment as he grilled him about his ex-assistant, and probably ex-girlfriend.
Preston and I hadn’t discussed Jane much in the wake of my arrival. I had a pretty good idea of what had been going on between them, but ultimately, it was none of my business. We’d not seen hide nor hair of her since the day she got fired, and neither of us had thought to bring her up.
But now I understood why Preston had entertained her for so long. Whether or not he was willing to admit it, I got the distinct impression that gaining his father’s approval was something he cared about very much despite how much he hated him. Families were complicated like that, I supposed.
He answered, “It didn’t work out,” and tried to leave it at that, but Mr. Harvey wasn’t having it.
“I can’t see why. Jane was a good match for you. When she was still around you very clearly worked harder than you ever have. She certainly seemed competent enough to me.”
“Well, then I suppose you didn’t really know her,” Preston snapped, taking a long draught of his wine. As usual, things were dematerializing pretty quickly between all of us, maybe even more so since Preston hadn’t shown up drunk this time. I cleared my throat and interrupted their talk of all things Jane with what seemed like a reasonable question.
“Was there something you wanted to talk to us about this evening?”
Mr. Harvey didn’t answer right away. He glanced from me to my mother, then back to Preston. For a moment, I was sure he knew about us, about what we had done. Just as the knot in my stomach grew too heavy to hold down anymore, he spoke.
“I heard about the Verger deal.”
I let out a long breath into my glass as I drank, swallowing both the red wine and the bile that had risen into my throat. I had to stop being so on edge. There was absolutely no way either of our parents could know what had happened, or might what continuing happening between Preston and I.
Was I really considering this? Was I really giving serious thought to continuing my affair with my soon-to-be stepbrother?
The mention of the Verger deal made me question myself even more. That was the client Preston had been on the phone with last night, the one who wanted to tear down a homeless shelter to put in a luxury condo development. It was infuriating. It was absurd. It was unethical. And yet Preston’s father seemed almost proud of him for it. I wondered how proud he would be when Preston called the whole thing off.
“I take it you want this to happen?” Preston said. He tried to play it cool, but I could hear the note of anticipation in his voice clear as a bell.
Mr. Harvey nodded, leaning back in his chair. “I’ll be honest, Preston: I wasn’t sure you’d have it in you to make a bold move like that, especially without Jane around to give you a little shove in the right direction. I thought maybe you’d gone soft on me. Not everyone in your position would have the stones.” He chuckled softly. “They’d be too afraid of going to hell.”
I couldn’t help but scowl. It twisted across my face before I could stop it.
“Rightfully so,” I muttered, knowing well the magnitude of the argument I was about to start. “It’s disgusting. You’re talking about taking the one safe haven these homeless people have and replacing it with a glorified apartment building for the wealthy. You ought to be ashamed.”
Mr. Harvey seemed taken aback at my little outburst, as if he wanted to reach across the table and smack me for speaking out of turn and beyond my station, but before he could say a word, my mother stepped in.
“Oh, Madison,” she sighed, amused by what she might call my “misguided pluck.” I watched her nine-carat engagement ring glitter under the prismatic spray of the chandelier above our heads. “You can’t possibly think we’re responsible for their misfortune. It’s not our fault they’re homeless.”
I met her gaze first, then Preston’s. “It is now,” I said.
Though I doubted it would make any difference, for once, nobody argued with me. The elder Harvey just smirked as he chewed on a bite of his disgustingly beautiful food while holding a silver fork that was probably worth more money than one of those poor homeless people would come by all year…
There was something about Maddy’s disapproval that made mincemeat of my heart, especially as she dressed down my father.
I wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but as she glanced over at me like that with such a righteous fire in her eyes, I felt incredibly small. No one ever made me feel that way, not even my father. He had made me feel a lot of things in my lifetime, very few of them good, but I could always tell myself that he did it as some kind of perverse power play, and that would make me feel better again.
I couldn’t do that with Maddy, and I didn’t know why. Maybe it was because, deep down, I knew she was right. But what was I supposed to do? Mr. Verger was one of the biggest clients we had. It was definitely going to upset Maddy, but I couldn’t just tell him “no.” The kind of shit storm that would bring down on my father’s head would be unreal. I might have done it just for that reason, if not for the fact that shit rolls downhill.
No one said much else during dinner, though I could tell from Maddy’s mother’s sighs that she considered the evening ruined. I still didn’t fully understand what we were doing here. Was this some kind of “atta boy” for handling the Verger problem? Or perhaps some misguided reinforcement to ensure I didn’t chicken out on the whole sordid matter? If so, it seemed very unlike my father.
When we’d all finished our meals, he stood up from his place at the head of the table. “Vivian,” he said, “why don’t you take Madison into the parlor for some after-dinner drinks. Preston, you go ahead and take a few minutes to finish up here, and when you’re don
e, we will finish this discussion in the study.”
Now it made sense. There was more to it than met the eye, but not something my father wanted to discuss in front of Maddy and her mother. Madison looked absolutely terrified at the prospect of spending alone time with Vivian, and I couldn’t blame her. As my father retired to the opulently decorated library at the far side of the house, I very quickly decided I wasn’t hungry anymore. I took a moment to intercept Maddy just outside the parlor door.
“I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’ll try to make this quick.”
“It’s fine,” she snapped. I could tell she was still upset about the thing with the shelter. “I can handle myself against my mother. I’m sure you have other things to worry about.”
I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “You just don’t understand, Maddy. This is the way of the world. If I don’t do this, somebody else will, and then…”