Page 17 of The Player + The Pact = I Do

“You might not do business directly with Hammonds, but you know New York is a small city. I’m sure real estate is a small business. The grapevine is very real. You don’t want to become a laughing stock. You don’t want the reputation of a man who faked his engagement.”

“Of course I don’t, but why would it come to that? The only people who know are you five and my assistant.”

“And whoever she’s asked to audition for the part. What’s that saying? Two can keep a secret when one of them is dead. You’re already at six by my count, plus Efa. That’s more murder than I think you’re comfortable with.”

My heart thrashes against my chest. He’s right.

“Why don’t you just take a date? You don’t have to be engaged, do you?”

“If I turn up with a date…” I pause, pushing my fingers through my hair. “It means I haven’t foundthe one—haven’t met anyone as important as Caroline, sinceCaroline. I’m not prepared to see her in those circumstances.”

“Better that than you get found out as a man who has to hire someone to be his fiancée.”

I groan. He’s right. If anyone was to find out, it would be humiliating.

“Then I can’t go. I won’t accept the award,” I say. “Because there is no other solution.”

Silence echoes at the other end of the phone.

Fuck. Why did Caroline have to come back to town now? Why couldn’t she stay in California and run the business from there? I can hear her saying “darling!” like it was yesterday. She had this effected, condescending tone that I thought at first was sophisticated, but hindsight makes clear that it was just fucking rude. “Darling, of course I can’tactuallymarry you. You know we were never going to be a long-term thing. I’m a Hammond.”

It had taken a while for her words to sink in, to understand that I was just a ball of wool to her kitten—something to be toyed with. I was nothing to her.

“I’m just trying to protect you,” Worth says.

“I get it. But I want to go and accept this award. The fact that Hammonds is fucking sponsoring it makes me want to go more. I want to stand up there in front of the hotshots of a city where I used to deliver bread and look at everyone who wants to do business with me, wants a little piece of what I have, and have a chance to soak it all in.”

“You deserve that, my friend,” Worth says.

I swallow, ignoring the way my throat tightens.

“Maybe the answer is to double down,” he says. “Maybe you just need to go harder, rather than retreat.”

“What does that mean?” I ask.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… maybe you need to get your engagement announcement inThe New York Times. Go full throttle. Why would you risk doing that if it was fake?”

“Because I was losing my grip on reality? And it doesn’t solve the problem of a relative stranger knowing a powerful secret about me.”

He sighs. It’s still a problem.

“Do you know anyone in the UK? What about a friend of Efa’s or Eira’s? There’s a bit of distance there. Less chance of crossover. Less chance of anyone finding out the engagement’s not actually real.”

“I’ll bring it up tonight.”

It’s Monday, our regular meet-up night. I could get five opinions for the price of one.

“Look, I have a meeting starting in about two minutes.”I don’t tell him it’s with a potential fiancée, but even so, this meeting suddenly feels like the wrong thing to do.

I hang up and bellow at Jules to come in.

She sticks her head around the door. She’s only been working with me for a few months, but I’m impressed at how quickly she’s picked things up. She’s smart and resourceful and the plan she worked up for The Mayfair was impressive. If I didn’t need a good assistant so badly, I’d be tempted to try her out in place of Louis. But I don’t want to rock the boat. She’s right, Louis isn’t great at his job, but better the devil you know as far as I’m concerned.

“This woman you’ve lined up,” I say. “Where does she work?”

“Saks,” she says. “She has a boyfriend down in Florida, so you don’t even have to worry about her getting expectations or anything. She’s my roommate. She totally gets it.”

“I’m going to have to cancel. Or press pause at least. I’ve got a small-scale crisis at New River to worry about.”

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