Chapter 5 - The Woman in the Emerald Dress
Serena laughed nervously.
"Surely you're not accusing me of deliberately spilling wine."
Lucien said nothing.
That was worse.
Marin touched his arm.
"Lucien."
His gaze shifted to her hand.
"Don't."
"Don't what?"
"Turn this into something bigger."
He looked at the room.
"It became bigger when a guest publicly humiliated someone working under my protection."
Serena's face changed.
"Your protection?"
Marin immediately removed her hand.
Lucien didn't correct himself.
Serena looked around at the watching guests.
"She is an employee."
"Yes."
"And you're embarrassing your family's oldest friends over a secretary?"
Lucien's eyes became cold.
"Executive assistant."
Marin almost laughed despite herself.
Serena didn't.
Lucien called the hotel manager.
"Please have someone bring Ms. Holloway a private changing room and arrange cleaning."
Marin said, "I can go home."
"No."
The answer was immediate.
"Why?"
"Because that's what she wants."
Serena's cheeks flushed.
Lucien looked at Marin.
"If you want to leave, leave because you choose to. Not because someone made you feel unwelcome."
The words struck somewhere Marin wasn't prepared to defend.
She stared at him.
He understood.
Maybe not everything.
Enough.
Twenty minutes later, Marin returned.
The hotel couldn't repair the dress, but staff had cleaned enough of the wine to make the stain less obvious.
She could have borrowed another gown.
She refused.
She walked back into the ballroom wearing the stained emerald velvet.
People noticed.
Good.
Let them.
Lucien watched her cross the room.
This time, Marin didn't lower her eyes.
Serena left before dessert.
But the conflict didn't leave with her.
Monday morning, rumors spread.
Lucien had publicly defended his assistant.
Serena had been humiliated.
Certain executives began whispering that Marin had too much influence.
Then the first real attack came.
An internal audit found confidential documents copied under Marin's employee credentials.
Security records showed her badge accessing Lucien's office at 2:13 a.m. Sunday.
Lucien called her inside.
The documents lay on his desk.
Marin read the report.
"I wasn't here."
"The badge log says you were."
"My badge was in my purse."
"Where?"
"At home."
Lucien's expression revealed nothing.
Marin felt something colder than fear.
Disappointment.
Not because she thought he believed the evidence.
Because she realized how easy it would be for him to return to the man she'd met three months earlier.
The man who trusted no woman.
"Do you believe I did this?" she asked.
Lucien looked at her.
"I believe evidence can lie."
Her shoulders loosened slightly.
"But people do too," he added.
There it was.
Marin nodded.
"Then investigate."
"You won't defend yourself?"
"I just did."
"That's not enough."
"It has to be."
She removed her security badge.
Placed it on his desk.
"If three months of my work means less than one access log, nothing I say will fix that."
She walked toward the door.
"Marin."
She stopped.
"I didn't fire you."
"No. You just looked at me like you were wondering whether you should."
Lucien's jaw tightened.
Marin left.
For the first time since she'd arrived at Devereaux Holdings, Lucien's office felt strangely empty.
He stared at the badge.
Then at the security report.
His mother had died because he'd trusted the wrong person.
For five years, he'd believed distrust kept him safe.
Now someone was counting on that wound.
Someone believed all they had to do was make Marin look guilty—
and Lucien would destroy the one person who had never betrayed him.
He picked up the phone.
"Bring me every security recording from Saturday midnight through Monday morning."
The security director hesitated.
"That's hundreds of hours."
"I didn't ask how many."
May you like
Lucien looked toward Marin's empty desk.
"And find out who wants me to believe Marin Holloway is a traitor."
