Page 95 of Cruel Fate

Stella relaxes, but she picks at her quinoa salad. I agree it isn’t that appetizing, and I engage Helena in conversation instead of eating mine. I’ve always liked her, and she’s giving up a lot to spend the foreseeable future in the States. I’ll ask Stella to show her around the city. Helena’s lot more down to earth than other women in our circle, and I think Stella would enjoy her friendship.

Between the salad and main course, Clayton pushes his chair back, and as the featured speaker, takes his place behind the podium.

The party guests lower their voices to a murmur, and beside me, Stella stiffens.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Clayton starts, and the crowd quiets even more.

I rub my thumb over Stella’s knuckles. I love she wears the ring I gave her. It sits on her right hand, and I wish it were on her left, but we’re not ready.I’mnot ready. That she loves me and accepted my promise to love her forever will have to be enough for the next little while.

“First, I want to thank you for coming tonight to support the son of my dearest friend.”

Ash lifts Zarah’s hand and kisses the inside of her wrist. She smiles at him, and they stare at each other like they’re the only two people in the room.

Clayton Black makes an imposing figure standing before us. His hair is dark, his features sharp, his tux crisp. He holds everyone’s attention. Even the servers pause to listen.

He bows his head and pauses a moment, and from where I sit, I can see his Adam’s apple bob up and down in grief. “I have never been so shocked, so distraught, as when I heard of the plane crash that took the lives of Kagan and Lark Maddox. All my life, Kagan was my closest friend, and losing him was like losing a brother.” Clayton clears his throat and sips out of a small bottle of water someone placed inside the podium.

“Even though Maddox Industries and Black Enterprises are, in reality, rivals in a shrinking market, Kagan and I never treated each other in any way than what we were—best friends.

“I’ve had six months to process the loss, and it hasn’t been near long enough. A year won’t be enough. Ten years. Twenty. When God took Kagan and Lark, He left a void that can never be filled. That’s why I stand in front of you today, at the request of Zarah Maddox, whom I love as if she were my own daughter, to praise Kagan’s son, Zane, and the tremendous amount of courage he has to take over his father’s legacy.”

Zarah flashes a smile at me. Stella squeezes my hand. Ash lifts a glass of champagne to me in a toast, and I nod in return. It humbles me I have so much support. People who want to see me become the success my father was. To be the one to steer Maddox Industries into the future.

“Zane and Zarah,” Clayton continues, “you and my son, Ash, have grown up together, and I hope that you have the close friendship that I had with your father. Please know that you cancome to me for whatever you need, and that need cannot be too little or too great. The knowledge that I can be of assistance to you both eases the sting of losing your parents. Not much, but some.”

“Thank you,” I say, and Clayton doesn’t so much as hear me as reads my lips from the dais.

“Let’s share a toast now, to Zane and Zarah. May the pain of losing your parents fade, and the memories of those two extraordinary people always live on in our hearts. Zane will continue Kagan’s legacy through Maddox Industries, and I couldn’t be prouder. To Zane and Zarah.”

“To Zane and Zarah!” the guests echo, raising their glasses to me and my sister, and her cheeks color a delicate pink.

“On that note,” Clayton says, ending his speech, “my son has a few words, and then we’ll let you continue on to the meal. I don’t know about you, but I smell something good in here.”

The crowd laughs. Clayton is rarely jovial, and the unexpected banter lightens the room.

Ash kisses Zarah’s cheek.

Stella straightens, her senses on high alert.

Ash stands and joins his father on the platform. They clap each other’s backs, their hands fisted between them, and my throat burns. I miss my mom and dad more than anything in the world. Only Stella’s warm palm on my thigh eases the tightness in my chest.

An air of confusion drifts around the room as Ash stands behind the podium. No one knows what he has to say.

Willow kisses Zarah’s cheek. She must be glad Ash is marrying someone she likes. As far as I know, Zarah and Willow have always gotten along. It would have been easy for Ash to choose a spoiled, selfish woman whom he could never please. I’ve met one a time or two. They try to hide the greed, but eventually, it always comes out.

Our parents raised Zarah and me to be grateful for everything, and they never let us take anything for granted. I don’t think Lucille would have, in her own way, adopted us after our parents’ deaths if we’d treated her as a servant and nothing more.

Ash begins to speak. “I’m sure you want to know what I have to say that my dad didn’t. Trust me, there is nothing I could add that would sound better or be any more sincere. Kagan Maddox was like a father to me, and Lark, I can’t say she was like a mother, because that would make what news I have to share sound rather disturbing.”

Our guests get it then, and excitement bounces around the room.

“I was only five when Zarah was born, but even then, Zane and I were best friends. One afternoon my father and Kagan needed to discuss something, and he brought me to their penthouse. I remember Lark carrying a bundle wrapped in pink into the living room. I’d never seen a baby before, and I was so scared when Lark asked if I wanted to hold her. I was too terrified to say yes, but I wanted to, so badly, my little five-year old heart just ached with it. Lark—she was an intuitive woman—knew, and she had me hop onto the couch. She settled Zarah in my lap, telling me in that soft way she had to keep my arm under her head, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Zarah’s delicate little face. Then she smiled at me, and well, look at her now. Could you tell her no?”

The crowd laughs.

“I lost my heart to that little infant that day, and I’ve spent the past twenty years waiting to ask her the question I asked her two days ago. I asked her to marry me, and she said yes.”

Everyone in the ballroom starts swooning, only Stella stares down at her empty place setting.

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