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Taking a seat at a nearby table, the blonde’s blue eyes zeroed in on Cassie’s engagement ring, and her expression hardened. Why would she care? She wore a massive marquis-cut diamond ring.
“Cassandra?” Leo prompted, pulling a chair out for her. “This is our table.”
She took her seat and scanned her dinner companions. Alexander joined them at the table. Holy shit. This was Leo’s family.
“Excuse me, everyone.” Leo took a seat next to her. “I’d like to introduce Cassandra Papadakis.” Despite the noise in the room, the conversation stopped at the Sutton table as all eyes turned to her.
Her heart hammered. Talk about being thrown into the snake pit. She turned to Leo but couldn’t catch his eye. He had his full attention focused on a man seated across the table with coarse, blond, almost-white hair. The man returned Leo’s gaze with equally fierce attention.
The man shifted his gaze to her. “Cassandra,” he said in a formal voice. “Welcome. I’m Malcolm, Leo’s half brother.” Malcolm placed his arm around the blonde, saying, “This is Whitney.My wife,” Malcolm added with dramatic emphasis.
Whitney’s blonde hair was styled in a trendy updo with not a hair out of place, her makeup was perfect, and she had a sweet, turned-up nose. Whitney was pretty like a doll, and there were so many other women like her. Leo had told Cassie that when he’d first seen her at the Kronos, he compared her to an exotic orchid amongst a field of common flowers. Her love for Leo grew even more. Flaws and all, she’d never been so happy to embrace who she was. She glanced at Leo, who gave her a knowing smile. He remembered.
“Nice to meet you, Malcolm, Whitney.” She smiled at them, but their returning smiles were stiff. Cassie hoped she would be able to maintain a cordial expression through dinner.
Leo took her left hand and kissed it, saying, “I’m also delighted to announce Cassandra has agreed to marry me.”
“Isn’t it marvelous?” Alexander crowed. He lifted his champagne glass. “Congratulations to the happy couple.”
Except for Alexander’s response, there were no other enthusiastic congratulations, just lukewarm remarks around the table. Tension crept through her. This was precisely the reaction she’d feared—she was not welcome here.
“Well, this is a surprise,” said an older blonde woman sitting next to Malcolm. She wore a royal blue gown that intensified her cold, icy-blue eyes. “Welcome to the family, my dear.” She lifted her thin, too-red lips into what approximated a smile but was more like a sneer.
Cassie detected a mean streak. This was a woman who rarely smiled.
“Thank you,” she muttered.
“Please forgive me. I forgot my manners,” Leo said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “This is Eleanor Sutton, Malcolm’s mother.” His tone was frigid. “Always a pleasure to see you, Nellie.” Eleanor’s eyes narrowed at him.
Nicknames were for people who wanted to be informal, but there was nothing informal about Eleanor. She looked even more rigid than she had in her wedding photo.
She turned her attention to the other guests at their table. They were all blond and most likely relatives of Eleanor Sutton. Fortunately, Cassie was seated between Alexander and Leo, so she immersed herself in conversation with Alexander, who seemed genuinely interested in her work at Worldwide Witness. The elephant in the room was her father, or more accurately, her father’s business. Let them think whatever they wanted. She had nothing to do with her father’s business and wouldn’t be able to answer any questions about it if she were asked.
Alexander held everything together throughout dinner. Like a ringmaster, he engaged everyone at the table and never allowed the guests to indulge in antagonistic behavior.
Servers placed an extravagant, multi-tiered birthday cake with sparklers in front of Alexander. Everyone sang, and after he made the first cut, he cheerfully posed for photos. The servers took over slicing the cake and distributing it to the guests.
A few minutes later, Alexander took out his phone and got abruptly to his feet. “If you’ll excuse me for a minute,” he said to his family.
“Everything all right, Gramps?” Leo asked, ready to stand.
“Everything is fine. I’ll be right back.” Alexander headed for the exit.
She pushed away her untouched slice of cake. “Time to leave,” she said into Leo’s ear.
“In a few minutes.” Leo patted her hand and kept his attention on Malcolm. What was this cat and mouse game they played? Leo’s jaw muscles clenched. For his part, Malcolm ignored Leo, preferring to fawn over Whitney, feeding her tiny forkfuls of cake.
“You promised me,” she whispered to Leo.The feeling of dread from earliercame creeping back.
Leo’s phone pinged with a text. He scrolled through some messages. “I have to make a call,” he said, tapping out a text to someone.
She glanced at Malcolm, who kept an eye on her and Leo. It was weird. “Can I come with you?” she asked.
“No, it’s important. We’ll leave as soon as I come back. I promise.”
What could be so important he had to handle right this minute?
“Okay,” she said without a shred of enthusiasm.
