Page 73 of A Conflict of Interest

“Is it,” Anna muttered, her gaze fixed on the distance.

Mom glowed. “That’s right,” she said, just about bursting. “It’s… it’s all a big family. The four of us, all together. Well, Anna, Veronica—your father and I were so worried about how you might take it—”

“Wait,allof you?” I said. “You and Mrs. Gould and Dad and Mr. Gould too? Damn, Mom. I underestimated you. Respect.”

Mom must have actually been serious, because she welled up a little at me. “Thank you, Veronica. It’s just—your father and I—we’ve discovered so many things about ourselves over the past year…”

Anna finished her champagne, knocking the flute back. “Mom, I told you not to come to my events and you crash it anyway to come tell me you’re in a bisexual polycule with my client.”

Berg drew in a sharp breath, putting a hand up. “I think maybe I’ve come at the wrong time,” he said. “I’ll talk to Veronica in a second—”

“No, wait,” Danielson said, looking frantically between me and Berg. “This is—”

Kelcey waved him off. “Oh my god, you have to be supportive of these things,” she said. “Mrs. Preston,that’s so wonderful. I’m so happy for all four of you.” She stepped in to give Mom a hug, which meant that naturally, Mom squeezed her and then went to give me a hug too.

“Careful, I might throw up,” I said, and she welled up and hugged me lightly before she moved onto Anna, and then on to Michael Berg, to everyone’s confusion but most of all Michael Berg’s confusion. Still, she wasn’t taking no for an answer, and she hugged him, and he seemed at a loss for a second as to what to do before he hugged her in return, patting her awkwardly on the back.

“Uh… congratulations…” he managed.

“Thank you,” Mom said, her voice thick and teary, and she moved onto where Liam Danielson tried to step back away from the scene, but Kelcey put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him from fleeing, and he too was forced to accept a hug from my mom blubbering about how happy she was to have his support,whatever your name is.From the look on his face, I think he was actually the one about to throw up.

“Ma’am, I don’t know who you are,” he said, his voice strained. Miranda glared at him.

“Christ, man, shut up. There’soneinteresting thing happening at this damn event and you’re trying to get in the way of it. It’s like a soap opera and you’re turning off the channel. No better than my damn husband always sneering at my television choices and—”

Mom turned and gave Miranda a hug too, and Miranda made an awkward noise but consented to hug her back, fumbling a little bit with it. Danielson took advantage of the opening, red-faced now and aware of how much Berg was slowly backing out of the gathering, and he pointed a damning finger at me.

“Veronica—I’m not going to look the other way while you slip out of this. What did the Huntingtons pay you?”

“Nothing,” I said lightly. “You don’t pay very well, but I’m not about to go begging Kelcey for money.”

He reddened. “Then what explanation do you have for the secretive connections between you and Kelcey Huntington—for moving your communications to private channels and extorting me to demand the contract favors her specifically—”

Kelcey looked across the group, met my eyes, and I felt my heart flutter a little when she gave me that big, beautiful smile that she had patented—the absolute radiant look nobody could ever do half as well as her—and she slipped across the group to my side, snaked an arm around my waist, and she left me breathless when she said, “It’s because she’s my girlfriend.”

Ah—Jesus Christ, she called me her girlfriend. I lurched, my head spinning, seeing stars, before I put on a shaky smile and a laugh, slipping an arm around Kelcey’s waist to match her. Anna drew her lips in a tight line, giving us a look witheyebrows arched high, but I didn’t care about anyone in the world right now except for Kelcey Huntington referring to me as hergirlfriend.“Yeah, of course,” I said. “That was what I’d been telling you when you started the case… that I’d take on Kelcey Huntington’s case since I knew her.”

“What—” Danielson paled, looking between me and Kelcey. “That’s not… huh? That’s not what you said.”

Kelcey and I exchanged odd looks, and Kelcey frowned at him. “Of course it is,” she said. “That’s why I’d been calling her Nic. It’s just a cute little nickname between the two of us.”

“You said—” Danielson looked quickly at every face around him, including Berg’s hardening expression, before looking back at me. “You said it was because her ex was named—”

“Yeah, me,” I said, scowling like this was all perfectly obvious and we’d talked about it extensively. I guess there was no better way out of these kinds of situations than gaslighting someone. “We’d broken up before, but we got back together… well, Kelcey was kind enough to give me another chance, is what it really was,” I laughed, turning to look adoringly at Kelcey and brush a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “Which… is very, very lucky for me.”

“Oh, stop,” she laughed, absolutely glowing at me in that way nobody else but her could ever do, and Danielson strained a noise in his throat.

“You can’t—it’s not appropriate for the kind of work—you needed to disclose that kind of conflict of interest before—”

“I did,” I said, shooting him a look. “I told you about it. I was just saying that.”

“We talked plenty about it,” Kelcey said, frowning at him. “I told you how I didn’t even know Veronica was with your firm because she’d started working there while we were apart, but that she was such a wonderful, intelligent woman who I trustedand had great work, and you said you had a plan in place to make sure it would all work out without trouble.”

Danielson scratched the back of his neck, sweating bullets. “A—a plan? When? You two—since when was this even—”

“Oh, Kelcey and I?” I laughed, resting my head on her shoulder. “God, we go back forever. Don’t we, Mom?”

“Oh, youdo,” Mom said, looking like she’d burst. “I remember when I first saw you two together… I could see the sparks flying. And Kelcey—oh, she’s just so wonderful. Intelligent, quick-witted, charming, beautiful… I can’t believe I have such wonderful daughters, all four of them.”

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