Chapter 80: The Forbidden Dance

The Brian Worldwide ball, held annually, was a work of art in controlled spectacle. It happened in the city's top hotel's grand ballroom, a grand room filled with crystal and gold leaf, packed with the eastern seaboard's most influential and beautiful people. It was a night on which deals were cut in tones and handshakes, on which weddings were negotiated over champagne glasses, and on which the magnificence of Joe Brian's empire was presented in dazzling, breathtaking fashion.

It was a particular sort of torture for Davidson. He was required to do his job: the handsome young protégé, the chosen heir, beguiling and witty and utterly at ease in his own skin. He smiled, he shook hands, he spoke pleasantly to senators and ladies, all the while sensing that he was a phony in his own flesh. Every laugh was a strain, every smile a crack in a thin facade. He could sense Melissa's loss like a ghost limb, a nagging, throbbing reminder of the life he was leaving behind with each passing second.