Nicholas straightened.
“Hartwell Strategic Ventures.
We advise growing companies.”
Daniel looked toward Priya.
“Isn’t that the entity named in the proposal we received?”
“Yes,” she answered.
Emmett faced Nicholas.
“Your message claimed that Hartwell had advised three technology firms through acquisition events.
My team could not verify any of them.”
Nicholas’s confidence faltered.
“Those relationships are confidential.”
“One of the firms does not exist,” Priya said.
“Another denied working with you.
The third was a company where you completed a six-week internship four years ago.”
The ballroom had become a courtroom without a judge.
Every lie remained suspended in the air, visible now because the people Nicholas wanted to impress understood exactly what they were hearing.
He turned on me.
“Did you arrange this?”
“No.”
“You brought him here to humiliate me.”
“You invited him.”
“Because he was supposed to be a guest.”
Emmett’s voice sharpened.
“I am a guest.
I arrived intending to congratulate you and your wife.
Then I found the most valuable consultant I have ever hired seated beside a trash cart while you attempted to take credit for her work.”
Nicholas’s cheeks reddened.
“She’s my sister.
This is family business.”
“You made it business when you contacted my office.”
Claire removed her engagement ring and wedding band from her finger.
The movement was so small that only those nearest her noticed at first.
Then her mother gasped.
Nicholas turned.
“What are you doing?”
Claire looked down at the rings in her palm.
“I need to know whether anything you told me was true.”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
The moment the words left his mouth, regret crossed his face.
Claire’s eyes filled, but her voice remained calm.
“You told me Jenna chose not to participate in the wedding party.”
I shook my head.
“He never asked me.”
“You told me she refused to help with the invitations.”
“He sent them to me three days before the printer deadline and asked me to rewrite all of them for free.
When I said I could only review them that weekend, he said he would handle it.”
Claire closed her fingers around the rings.
“You told me she hated me.”
That hurt more than I expected.
I stepped closer to her.
“I never hated you.
I thought you were kind to him.
I hoped he was kind to you when no one else was watching.”
Claire looked at Nicholas.
His silence answered for him.
