She Divorced The Wrong Man

Chapter 5

The Harbor Palace Hotel had a red carpet rolled out across the front steps. Cars were lined up along the curb, and men in tuxedos and women in long dresses were walking in two and three at a time.

Ethan's car stopped at the end of the line. Olivia was on the phone in the back seat, talking low and fast with one finger raised to tell him she'd be a minute. He nodded and got out first.

The suit she had found for him fit well. It was black, simple, and cut like it was made for him, and for the first time in three years he didn't smell like soap and car wax. He tugged at the sleeve and started up the carpet.

"Ethan?"

He knew the voice before he turned. Claire was standing near the door in a dark blue evening dress, with her hair pinned up and a small silver bag in her hand. Preston was next to her in a tuxedo, one hand resting at her back.

Her eyes went wide. "What are you doing here?"

"I came for the dinner," Ethan said.

"You came for the dinner?" She looked him up and down, from the suit to the shoes. "Ethan, did you follow me? I told you I'd find you after tonight. You didn't have to come and wait for me like this."

Preston laughed. "Wait, is this the guy? The car wash guy?" He stepped forward and smiled like a man enjoying a show. "Claire told me about your little stunt at the bank. A fake black card, right? That took guts. Stupid, but guts."

"I didn't follow anybody," Ethan snapped. "And the card isn't fake."

"Sure it isn't." Preston looked at the suit. "Where did you get that, a rental place? Did you steal it too?"

Claire's face dropped. She stepped closer and lowered her voice so the people nearby wouldn't hear.

"Ethan, I know the divorce hurt you, I know it did. But this isn't you. You were never someone who would lie and cheat people, and I can't stand to see you going down this road because of me."

"Because of you?" Ethan scoffed.

"Please just give the card back." Her eyes were wet, and she meant every word. "Take it to the bank, say you made a mistake, and apologize. If the real owner finds out, it's not going to be a small problem. It could ruin your whole life."

For a second something in him wanted to explain. Then he remembered her voice on the phone, telling him to turn himself in, and the feeling went cold.

"Don't flatter yourself, Claire," he said. "I'm not here because of you. I'm here for the auction."

Claire stared at him. "The auction?"

"That's right."

Her face went red, and her mouth pressed into a hard line. She had been trying to help him, and he had answered like she was a joke. "You know what, fine. I tried, I really tried. But you're not even grateful."

"He never was," Preston said. He put a hand on her shoulder and turned her away from Ethan. "Claire, listen to me. Look at him, do you think he can even afford a seat at this dinner? Tickets cost more than he makes in a year. He'll walk in there, everyone will see he doesn't belong, and he'll make a fool of himself."

"Stop worrying about him. If he goes down, you don't want to be standing next to him. People will ask questions."

Claire didn't answer. She looked at Ethan one more time, and he looked back.

Behind them, a car door shut.

The sound wasn't loud, but people turned anyway. Olivia stepped out of the car with her phone in her hand, and the whole entrance seemed to go quiet.

She wore a long black gown with one bare shoulder, and her hair fell in dark waves down her back. Next to her, even the best-dressed women on the carpet looked like they were trying too hard.

Claire was a beautiful woman, and she knew it. But as she watched Olivia walk up, she felt, for the first time, that she wasn't the prettiest person in the room.

Olivia had heard most of it from the car with the window cracked open. She hadn't said a word during the call, but she'd listened, and her mouth had gone thin.

She walked right up to Ethan and slipped her arm through his, standing close, like she'd done it a hundred times. She smiled up at him.

"Sorry I took so long, darling. I had to take that call." She turned her head toward Claire and Preston as if she had only just noticed them. "Oh, are these friends of yours?"

Ethan understood right away what she was doing. He felt her arm warm against his, and the faint smell of her perfume, and something small and strange jumped in his chest. He kept his face still.

"Just some people I used to know," he said.

"Mm." Olivia looked at Claire for a long second, and then looked away like she was bored. "Shall we go in?"

Claire felt like she had been slapped.

He had a new woman already. It hadn't even been a day. She had signed the papers this afternoon, and here he was in a nice suit with a beautiful woman on his arm. She told herself she had no right to be upset, that she was the one who'd asked for the divorce.

But her hands were shaking anyway, and her throat felt tight.

Preston's face had gone sour too. It annoyed him badly to see a car wash worker with a woman like that. He opened his mouth to say something nasty, but then he looked at Olivia more closely, and the words stopped in his throat.

He knew her face.

He had seen it on a magazine cover, and on a stage at a finance forum his father dragged him to last year. She was Olivia Grant, the senior director of Sterling Crown Bank.

Sterling Crown wasn't only the biggest bank in the country. It had branches and businesses in a dozen other countries too. And Olivia had the final say on every investment the bank made in this city, which meant nearly every big deal went through her desk.

Preston only had a platinum card there, and even that had taken his family months to get. People like him didn't get to talk to someone at her level. He'd tried to get one meeting with her last spring and her assistant had turned him down.

Yet here she was, holding Ethan's arm like it was nothing.

Preston's mind started to work, and he thought he saw the whole picture. That must be why the bank hadn't had Ethan arrested. Ethan hadn't gotten away with anything by himself. This woman had used her connections to pull him out of trouble, and she had probably gotten him into this banquet too.

He had somehow caught the attention of the most powerful woman at the bank.

Preston's jaw tightened. His jealousy turned into something uglier, because now he had to wonder what this guy had that he didn't.