9.

Charlotte had barely reached her car when the full absurdity of her decision finally caught up with her.

She had agreed to attend Olivia's wedding, something she had spent the last five months telling herself she would never do, and then she had made matters worse by promising to bring a date. A man who would sit beside her while she watched her twin marry her former husband, endure the curious stares of people who knew exactly what had happened, and somehow avoid becoming the subject of the next round of gossip surrounding the Sinclair family.

What kind of man would willingly agree to that?

Charlotte opened the driver's door and dropped her handbag onto the passenger seat before sliding behind the wheel. She sat there for a moment, staring through the windscreen at the workers carrying flowers into the mansion, and wondered whether she should turn around, march back inside and tell them she had changed her mind.

The thought lasted all of three seconds.

She could already imagine Sean's expression if she returned to the sunroom. He would probably laugh in her face, while Olivia would offer to help her find a seat somewhere at the back of the reception hall, away from the family table and the people who mattered. Margaret would attempt to smooth things over, and by the end of the conversation, Charlotte would somehow be the unreasonable one for making a promise she couldn't keep.

No. She would rather find a date.

The problem was that she didn't know where to begin.

For most of her marriage, Charlotte's social life had revolved around Sean's friends, business dinners and events she attended because her husband expected her to be there. She had known plenty of people, but knowing someone and being close enough to ask them to accompany you to your twin sister's wedding were two entirely different things. Besides, the scandal had made it painfully clear how many of those relationships had depended on her remaining Mrs. Sean Sinclair.

Once the news of her husband's affair with Olivia became public, several people who had previously called her a friend quietly disappeared, while others had been more than happy to offer their opinions about what she should have done differently. She had no desire to approach any of them now and give them another reason to discuss her private life.

Charlotte started the engine and pulled away from the house.

She would think of something. She had managed to survive five years of a miserable marriage, a humiliating betrayal and five months of living under the same roof as the people responsible for both. Finding a man to accompany her to a wedding couldn't possibly be the most difficult thing she had ever done.

Briefly, her mind wandered to the night everything changed. And not for the first time, she wondered what had become of the man she had spent that night with.

She had thought about him a lot since that night, although she had always pushed the memories aside whenever they threatened to take her attention away from the mess she was trying to sort out. She had been too busy dealing with the collapse of her marriage to wonder whether he had ever thought about her again.

There had been a note waiting for her when she woke up, but it hadn't given her much to work with. He had promised to reach out, and for a while, she had expected him to keep that promise. When days passed without hearing from him, she assumed he had changed his mind or decided that their encounter was best left in the past.

She hadn't exactly expected him to come looking for her, either. Their night together had been an impulsive decision on her part, and she had made it clear that she wasn't asking for a relationship. Whatever had happened between them was supposed to remain a single night, something she could remember without having to explain herself to anyone.

Yet, as she drove towards the city, she found herself wondering whether he would have agreed to accompany her to Olivia's wedding if she had the opportunity to ask him.

The thought was ridiculous enough to make her laugh under her breath.

She didn't even know how to find him.

Her handsome one-night gigolo would probably laugh in her face if he knew she was considering asking him to accompany her to her twin sister's wedding, especially after the way they had met.

She was royally fucked.

By the time she reached the city, her thoughts had thankfully shifted to the meeting waiting for her at Sinclair Group.

It was the first time she had returned to the office in five months, and although she had assured herself that she was ready, a small part of her wondered how different things would feel once she walked through those doors. She had spent years allowing her responsibilities to take a back seat to her marriage, convincing herself that Sean could manage the business while she focused on keeping their personal life from falling apart. Even after her father's death, when she had inherited a substantial share of the company and retained her place on the board, she had continued to leave most of the work to her husband.

She had trusted him to protect what her father had built.

That trust had been one of the biggest mistakes of her life.

Charlotte had grown up watching her father work, listening to his conversations about land acquisitions and investment opportunities, and accompanying him to the occasional office event when she was younger. He had never expected her to become another version of himself, but he had wanted her to understand the business well enough to protect her interests and recognise when something wasn't right.

She had done that once.

After his death, however, grief had left her with little appetite for the responsibilities that came with her inheritance. Sean had offered to take more of the burden off her shoulders, and she had accepted because it was easier than arguing with him about decisions she no longer felt capable of making. When he became CEO, she was relieved to have someone she believed she could trust running the company.

She had been the Vice Chairwoman of the Board for years, and as Chairwoman of the Property and Investment Committee, she had a responsibility to scrutinise major projects, question investment decisions and ensure that the company's property portfolio was being managed in the interests of its shareholders. Yet she had gradually allowed those responsibilities to become little more than titles on paper.

She had attended meetings when she was needed, signed off on documents after receiving assurances from Sean's team, and delegated much of the preparation to her staff. Eventually, even that became too much for her, and she began missing meetings altogether.

Sean had never complained.

At the time, she had taken that as a sign that he understood her struggles and was willing to give her space. Looking back, she wasn't sure whether he had simply found it convenient to have a board member who rarely challenged him.

Charlotte tightened her grip on the steering wheel as she turned into the office complex.

Whatever the answer was, she intended to find out.