Todos los capítulos de Dear Ex, I'm Your Godmother Now: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

RavennaI gave Selene exactly what she wanted. A little at a time.Brunch at the Kingsley estate, twice more. A tea at a hotel on the lake, where she introduced me to three women whose names I had heard at every dinner of my childhood. An afternoon in a boutique on Oak Street, where she held dresses up against me and said, "You have the figure for this, you lucky thing," in a voice so sweet and so blank that I almost admired the craftsmanship.I said yes to some things and no to others. I let her win small arguments. I laughed at her jokes. When she complained about her mother, I sympathized. When she complained about the staff at Calloway Textiles, I gave her advice, and it was good advice, and she used it.That was the trick. A woman who gives you nothing is a wall. A woman who gives you something is a door.Selene began to believe she was getting through.I watched it happen the way you watch ice thicken on a pond. Her shoulders loosened around me. Her voice dropped into that confi

Ravenna I read the headline in the back of a car, forty minutes after Adrian left my suite.Elise held the tablet out to me without a word. I read it once, slowly. Then I looked at the photograph of Selene beneath it, her hand half raised, her mouth caught open on a word she clearly hadn't wanted to say.'Calloway Textiles Loses Another European Supplier, Seeks Urgent Access to Kral Maritime Network.'I handed the tablet back."That was quick," Elise said."It was inevitable."The Milan pipeline had been failing for four years. A system built around one mind does not survive that mind's absence. It only takes longer to fall than anyone expects. Now the last supplier had walked, and the press had found out, and my father's company was standing in the street with its hat in its hand.Kingsley wanted me. Calloway needed me. That was a very different thing.The message came that same evening, at six fifteen. I had expected it earlier. They must have hesitated.The card was cream colored,

AdrianI followed her out onto the front steps. And, while I tried to convince myself it was only good manners, only I knew the anxiety that pulsed through my veins. The night had turned cold, and the driveway lamps threw long yellow pools across the gravel. Ravenna stood at the top of the stairs with her coat over her arm, looking at the empty drive. There was no car waiting."Your driver?" I asked."I sent him home. I thought the evening might run late." She glanced at her phone. "I will call a car.""Let me take you."The words were out before I could even bother to sound composed. She turned her head, and I felt Selene stiffen at my shoulder."Adrian." Her voice was low, bright, and brittle. "We have a driver. Mother's people can call a car for Miss Kral. You don't have to do it yourself.""It's no trouble.""It's eleven o'clock at night." She tugged at my sleeve. "You've barely eaten. You've been pale all evening, and you are tired, and I thought we were going home. Why do you al

Daven I do not often ask about my godson. It has never been necessary. Adrian was a man who reported his own progress. He sent emails with subject lines that said 'Update' and 'Quarterly Summary' and, once, regrettably, 'Quick Question.' When he wanted something, he came to my door. When he did not, I heard nothing, which I took to mean that things were in order. It had been two days since he called me from wherever he had been standing, and his voice pitched lower than it should have been. I had refused him. I had done it calmly, and I had meant it. I had expected to hear nothing further. A man who has been told no has two choices. He can drop the matter, or he can find another way. Either would have told me something. Instead I had heard nothing at all, and by Thursday morning, it had begun to interest me. "Grant," I called. Oliver Grant looked up from the far end of my office. He had been my assistant for eleven years. He was a narrow, pale, methodical man who wore the

Ravenna Adrian's face was such a delight. His lips parted twice to say something more, but nothing came out. Whatever dignity he had gathered on the way up here had slipped out of his hands, and he knew it. I rose, smoothed the front of my jacket, and walked to the door myself. "I have a meeting in half an hour," I told him, pulling the door wide. "I won't be able to see you off, so Elise will take you down." "Miss Kral, please, I only..." "Go home and sleep, Adrian. You look terrible." His face hardened, but then, he gave one stiff nod and walked out with his hands curling at his sides. He did not look back. Elise closed the door behind him, and I stayed where I was until I heard the elevator chime down the hall. Then I let myself smile, just once, and went to fix my lipstick. The private dining room Elise had booked sat on the top floor of a building that had every privacy we intended to get. It held a single table set for two and a wall of glass that turned Chicago gold in