PART 2:

Victoria had planned every detail herself. White roses and candles on every table, a crystal chandelier that threw light diamonds across the ceiling. 50 guests who represented the top tier of Chicago’s business and social world. The skyline beyond the windows burned gold and blue in the autumn night. It was Marcus had to admit spectacular.

He was checking his watch when Maria appeared quietly at the doorway. Lily on her hip, both of them in their nicest clothes. Maria wore a simple navy dress. Lily wore a red velvet dress with small black shoes. Her curls brushed into two neat puffs on either side of her head. “Mr.

Elliot,” Maria said softly, clearly uncertain. “I’m so sorry to interrupt. There was an issue with the kitchen staff. They need me for the next hour. I didn’t have anyone to watch Lily, and I couldn’t reach my sister. I’ll take her straight downstairs if you want. I just didn’t know.” Maria. Marcus smiled and crossed the room.

He crouched down to Lily’s level. Hey little bug, you look very fancy tonight. Lily’s face broke into the kind of smile that makes adults feel like the world is going to be okay after all. Mr. Mah, I drawed you a picture, but I forgoted it at home. You can bring it Monday, he said. He looked up at Maria. She can stay up here.

I’ll keep an eye on her. Go handle the kitchen. Mr. Elliot, I really don’t think Maria. Oh, we’ve got it. Maria’s eyes filled with gratitude. She kissed Lily’s cheek, whispered something in her ear, and disappeared. Lily immediately took Marcus’s hand and looked around the glittering room with enormous eyes. Is this a party? She whispered.

It is, Marcus said. For who? For me and Victoria. Lily considered this seriously. Is Victoria nice? Marcus paused for just one fraction of a second too long. “She can be,” he said quietly. “He didn’t know, standing there in that beautiful room, holding a three-year-old’s hand, that within the next 2 hours, the answer to that question would be given loudly, publicly, and in a way that none of the 50 guests would ever forget for the rest of their lives.

The most dangerous masks are the ones that fit perfectly until they suddenly don’t.” The party began at 7:00 and Victoria arrived at 7:15. She always arrived slightly late to events. She had explained to Marcus once with complete seriousness that arriving exactly on time was something people without social intelligence do. He had laughed, assuming she was joking.

She had not been joking. She entered the room in her silver gown, a custom piece she had mentioned three times, designed by someone Marcus had never heard of, but gathered was very important. And the room responded exactly the way she expected it to. Conversations softened, heads turned.

Her girlfriends Diane and Priscilla immediately materialized at her sides like satellites finding their orbit. Victoria was magnificent at events like this. That was simply the truth. She moved through the room with practiced grace, kissing cheeks, laughing at the right moments, remembering names and making every person she spoke to feel for exactly as long as she needed them to, like the most important person in the room.

Marcus watched her work the crowd and felt the familiar complicated feeling. Pride mixed with something he couldn’t quite name, knees, maybe. A low hum of something not quite right that he had been trying to silence for months. He was standing near the windows with his business partner, James Whitfield, when he felt a small hand slip into his.

Lily had been remarkably well- behaved for the first 40 minutes. She had sat in a chair near the window with a small bag of crayons and a coloring book that Marcus had sent someone to fetch from the hotel gift shop. She had colored very seriously, occasionally holding up pages to show Marcus from across the room, and he had given her a thumbs up each time.

But now she had abandoned the coloring book and was standing beside him looking around at the sea of adult legs and expensive shoes with a quiet curious expression she got when she was studying something very seriously. “You hungry little bug?” Marcus asked quietly. “No,” she said. Then after a moment, “She’s looking at me.” Marcus followed Lily’s gaze across the room.

Victoria was looking at them. She had paused mid-con conversation with a city councilman and his wife, and her eyes had landed on Lily with an expression that Marcus recognized, and had been pretending for months not to recognize. It was the expression Victoria wore when something disturbed her sense of how things should be, a slight tightening around the eyes, a very small, very controlled compression of the lips.

She excused herself from the councilman and crossed the room toward them. Marcus,” she said, her voice smooth and warm for the room’s benefit. She kissed his cheek and then looked down at Lily. “What is this?” Maria had a kitchen situation. I told her Lily could stay up here for the evening.

“Maria,” Victoria said with precisely the kind of smile that looked like a smile and wasn’t. Is the housekeeper. “I know who Maria is. Then you understand that having her child at our engagement party is”? She paused, adjusted her expression, remembered they were surrounded by people. “Well discuss it later. There’s nothing to discuss,” Marcus said quietly.

“She’s 3 years old, Victoria.” Victoria’s smile stayed perfectly in place. “Of course,” she said, and then she turned and walked away. For the next hour, everything was surface level fine. The appetizers were served. The champagne flowed. The speeches began. James gave a warm and funny toast that made the room laugh and then go quiet with something genuine.

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