“You didn’t pay her as much as she wanted?”
“I couldn’t.” he says, twirling me.
I frown, puzzled, “Then how did you get her to sell them to you?”
He shrugs again. “I have my ways.”
A sneaking suspicion dawns on me. “Wait,” I ask, “what did she want?”
He pauses. “She wanted me,” he says without any hint of conceit. “Either me or my destruction,” he pulls me close and guides me in a spin. I stare at him open-mouthed.
“I don’t understand.” I say as the music ends. But he doesn’t explain. He kisses me on the forehead as the man he had been talking to at our table, Leon Boise, comes to claim me for the next dance.
David hands me over with a curt smile, “handle with extreme care,” he says, before turning around and walking away from us.
“I’m Leon Boise,” my new partner tells me as we start to dance.
“I know.” I smile.
“You do?” he laughs, his silver hair gleaming in the lights, “I didn’t think I was famous.”
“I may have read some news articles.” I tell him.
He seems surprised, but is happy enough to tell me about his business as we dance.
Afterwards, I excuse myself and go to the ladies room. While I’m checking my makeup, the door opens, and my eyes meet Carole Bank’s in the mirror. She pauses at the door, giving me a long hard look.
For a few moments, we just look at each other, her gaze shrewd and assessing, mine puzzled and expecting the worst. She doesn’t disappoint.
“Oh look, it’s the child bride.” She says disparagingly.
I debate whether to reply, then I decide to ignore her, and turn back to the mirror.
“So how’s marriage to David treating you?” She asks. “You look happy?”
I turn to look at her, unwilling to be affected by her animosity. “I am, actually.” I tell her, not that it’s any of her business.
Her expression changes to one of faux concern. “Doesn’t it bother you that it won’t last?”
I swallow. “Why shouldn’t it? Because I didn’t try to buy David’s love with a couple of shares?”
Her eyes narrow, and then suddenly, she starts to laugh. “You have no idea, do you? You really are as innocent and trusting as you look.” She makes the words sound like ‘stupid and dumb’. She comes closer to me, as if she has some secret of vital importance to impart. “Sophie, David uses people. That’s how he got where he is. He used me, he used my father, and now he’s using you.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re...”
“Jealous?” she interrupts, “well maybe I am. But darling the truth is, he married you for a reason, and now that he’s got what he wanted, he no longer needs you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, he never would have had
his company without my father, and he would have lost control of it if I had sold my shares to the wrong person.”
“So you told him you would sell your shares to him if he married you?” I mirror her expression of scorn, “That sounds pretty desperate to me.”
She ignores me. “So your husband blackmailed me and forced me to do what he wanted. He is a snake, and he always plays dirty.” She pauses, “of course it wasn’t enough to him to win, he had to marry a green little country rat from the backwater to teach me a lesson.”
Her words touch me. Wasn’t that the answer to the question I had been asking myself all this time. ‘Why did David marry me?’