Chapter 18: The Introduction He Forgot

Aurelia's POV

The final walkthrough went well, and even Vivienne didn't have much to complain about, Diane confirmed that all the vendors were on schedule, and the venue coordinator went over the layout with us twice.

By the time we left, I finally felt a little calmer than I had in days, that steadiness didn't survive the evening.

Cassian had a reception that night.....a smaller affair than the gala itself, thrown by one of the firm's longtime investors to celebrate some milestone I hadn't fully followed the details of.

He had asked me to come with him almost as an afterthought, his invitation felt less like a request and more like an instruction on his schedule.

Wear the navy dress. Investors like it when the wives attend.

I wore the navy one anyway.....some habits took longer to unlearn than others.

The event was held in a private room at one of the city's older hotels, all dark wood and low lighting, the kind of room built to make important men feel even more important than they already believed themselves to be.

Cassian moved through it easily, shaking hands, laughing at jokes I couldn't hear from where I stood a step behind him, the way I always seemed to end up standing at these things.

"Cassian." A tall, silver-haired man approached, extending his hand with the easy confidence of someone who'd been rich for so long he'd forgotten what it felt like not to be. "Good to see you. Heard the international division's finally moving in the right direction."

"Robert. Good to see you too." Cassian shook his hand warmly, already leaning into the conversation with the particular energy he reserved for people whose money mattered to the company. "Have you met Kael yet? Father's other son. He's been running that division since he got back."

"Not yet. Heard good things, though."

"He's around here somewhere. I'll introduce you."

They walked away together, and Cassian immediately raised his hand to get someone’s attention across the room,it took me a moment to realize what had just happened.

He had walked away without introducing me. The man clearly knew who I was because he had seen me at other events, but now he stood just a few feet away from his wife as if I were nothing more than part of the furniture.

I stood there, navy dress and empty hands, feeling the particular sting of being made invisible in real time, in front of a stranger who hadn't even noticed enough to be confused by it.

"Robert Ellison, I don't think we've met."

The voice came from beside me, warm and easy, and I turned to find Kael already extending his hand toward the silver-haired man, having appeared from wherever he'd been standing at exactly the right moment.

"Kael Blackthorne. Good to finally put a face to the name." Robert shook his hand, genuinely pleased. "Your brother was just telling me about the international numbers. Impressive quarter."

"Thank you. Though I should say.....you haven't actually met the person who's been holding this family's public events together for the last several years." Kael turned slightly, drawing Robert's attention toward me with an ease that made it look effortless rather than deliberate.

“Robert Ellison, this is Aurelia Blackthorne, Cassian’s wife. She has managed the gala logistics for the past three years, including this year’s event.....she also coordinates many of the events this family hosts.”

Robert's expression shifted into something more attentive, more genuinely interested than it had been a moment before. "Is that right? I had no idea. My wife mentioned the gala last year was one of the best-organized events she'd been to all season."

"That's kind of her to say," I managed, still slightly thrown by how quickly Kael had turned an omission into an introduction.

"Not kindness. Just true." Robert nodded toward me with real respect now, the kind that hadn't existed thirty seconds earlier. "You should be running events for half the firms in this city, Mrs. Blackthorne. I mean that."

We talked for a few more minutes.....Robert asking genuine questions about the gala, about vendor logistics, clearly enjoying the conversation more than he'd enjoyed whatever he and Cassian had been discussing before.

When he finally left to greet another guest, he shook my hand warmly and promised to tell a few of his colleagues about the gala because they might need someone to handle similar events.

Once he'd gone, I turned to Kael.

"You didn't have to do that."

"I know."

"Cassian just...." I stopped, unsure how to finish the sentence without sounding either bitter or foolish.

"He forgot," Kael said simply. "I know. I watched it happen." Something in his jaw tightened, brief and controlled. "It wasn't the first time I've watched it happen, either."

"It happens more than you'd think." I looked down at my hands, embarrassed by how plainly true that was, how strange it felt to say it out loud to someone other than Rosa. "I've gotten used to it."

"You shouldn't have to get used to it."

I looked up at him, his expression was careful and controlled, as if he was hiding a lot more than he was willing to say.

"Rosa told me something similar," I admitted. "A few nights ago. That I've spent years getting smaller so other people could feel comfortable."

Kael went quiet for a second, something shifting in his face. "Rosa, she's still in the same cottage? Past the water, with the garden that never grows in straight lines?"

"The same one."

"I think about that garden more than I probably should." A small, unguarded smile, there and gone. "How is she?"

"Sharp as ever. Worried about me, mostly."

"She was always worried about you." He said it warmly, like the memory itself was something he'd kept carefully all this time. "Does she still make that soup? The one with too much garlic that somehow always fixed everything anyway."

"She made it three nights ago, I think she'd deny the garlic if you asked her directly."

"She would." He laughed quietly, and for a moment something old and easy passed between us, the weight of the evening lifting just slightly. Then his expression sobered again. "She's right, though. What she told you."

"I know she's right....knowing it and changing it aren't the same thing."

"No," he agreed. "But you did something different tonight. You didn't disappear when he walked away, you stood right where you were and let someone actually see you."

"That was you.....not me."

"I just made the introduction." His voice dropped slightly, quieter now, closer than the space between us really allowed for in a room full of investors and their wives. "You're the one who stood there and let it land instead of shrinking away from it. That's different than it sounds, Aurelia, I've watched you do the shrinking version plenty of times.....tonight wasn't that."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I said nothing, and we stood there together a moment longer than was probably wise, the low hum of the reception moving around us like we were somewhere else entirely.

Across the room, I caught sight of Cassian laughing at something Robert had said, utterly unaware of the exchange that had just happened without him.

He still hadn't noticed I'd been left standing alone at all.