Chapter 5: Dinner with Wolves
The gala was held on the forty-second floor of the Meridian Club — a private space that Sterling & Vance rented twice a year for board events.
Ivan had cleaned those floors eight months ago.
He remembered the pattern of the carpet.
He stood now in a rented suit that fit well enough, beside a woman in a charcoal dress who moved through the room as if the accident had never happened.
Jessi's control over her own body was extraordinary.
She shook hands, accepted champagne she didn't drink, laughed at the right moments.
Only Ivan, standing close enough, could see the slight rigidity in her left side when someone touched her arm too long.
"Breathe," she said quietly, without looking at him.
"You're scanning the room like you're expecting incoming fire."
"Old habit."
"Useful habit.
Just do it with a smile."
He smiled.
It felt strange on his face.
The board members came to them, not the reverse.
That was Jessi's doing — she had positioned herself near the windows, high ground, visible from every angle in the room.
People came to her.
She never chased.
The first hour passed without incident.
Ivan shook hands, gave short answers, let Jessi lead every conversation.
He watched Daniel across the room, working the crowd with his easy warmth, touching shoulders, laughing loudly, making each person feel like the most important one present.
Then Caroline Sterling found them.
Daniel's wife was elegant and precise, with the kind of careful friendliness that took years to perfect.
She kissed Jessi on both cheeks and turned to Ivan with a wide smile.
"So you're the mystery husband." She took his hand in both of hers.
"We've been so curious.
Jessi never breathes a word about her personal life."
"I'm a private person," Ivan said.
"Jessi respects that."
"Of course she does." Caroline tilted her head.
"Though I have to say — three months of marriage and we're only just meeting?
That does seem like a long time."
"We've both been busy," Jessi said pleasantly.
"Of course." Caroline's smile didn't move.
"Ivan, Daniel tells me you were in the military.
Special operations, was it?
That must have been intense."
"It had its moments."
"And now you're — what was the phrase — transitioning?" She said it gently, as if it were a delicate condition.
"That must be difficult.
Starting over."
"I don't think of it as starting over," Ivan said.
"More like applying the same skills in a different environment."
Caroline laughed lightly.
"Oh, I like him," she said to Jessi.
"He's very composed."
Across the room, Daniel was watching.
He raised his glass slightly when Ivan met his eyes.
They sat for dinner at a long table.
Ivan was placed between Jessi and a board member named Gerald Fitch — sixty years old, silver-haired, who had known the Sterling family for thirty years.
Fitch spent the first course asking Ivan careful questions about his background.
Not hostile.
Evaluating.
"Jessi's father would have liked you," Fitch said eventually, cutting his food.
"He valued people who'd actually done something before they walked into a boardroom."
"That's a kind thing to say."
"It's an honest thing to say." Fitch lowered his voice slightly.
"This company has been through a difficult year.
The accident shook people.
Daniel has been very — present.
Very available.
Filling the space, you understand."
"I understand."
Fitch looked at him steadily.
"It's good that Jessi has someone in her corner.
Someone who isn't on a payroll." He picked up his wine glass.
"You seem like a man who keeps his word."
"I try to be."
Fitch nodded once and returned to his food.
Dessert was being cleared when Daniel stood and tapped his glass.
The table quieted.
"I want to say a few words about my sister," he began, his voice warm and carrying.
"Jessi has led this company through an extraordinary year.
The accident alone would have stopped most people.
But here she is." He smiled at her across the table.
"And now she's brought someone new into the family.
Ivan — welcome." He raised his glass.
"We're very glad you're here."
The table raised their glasses.
Ivan raised his.
Daniel's eyes, over the rim, were not warm at all.
After dinner, in the elevator going down, Jessi leaned slightly against the wall and let out one long, controlled breath.
"Fitch is on your side," Ivan said.
"Fitch is on the company's side.
Right now those are the same thing." She straightened as the doors opened.
"Daniel made a mistake tonight."
"What mistake?"
"He toasted you." She walked toward the car.
"He just told every person in that room that he accepts you.
He can't undo that without looking like the one who destabilized the family."
Ivan held the car door.
"You planned that."
"I planned the seating chart." She got in.
"He planned the toast himself."
The car pulled away from the curb.
Ivan's phone buzzed in his pocket.
A text from an unknown number.
*Your daughter's custody agreement has a clause you've never read.
Ask Jessi what she knows about it.
— A friend.*
He stared at the screen.
Then he looked at Jessi's profile in the dark of the car.
She was looking straight ahead.
May you like
He said nothing.
But he didn't delete the message.
