He held one out toward me, his gold signet ring clicking sharply against the rim of the crystal glass.

“You made it through the ceremony without causing a scene,” Gerald said.

His voice was raspy from thirty years of cigars and air-conditioned boardrooms.

“I owe you a small acknowledgment for that,” he said.

I adjusted the sleeve of my crisp navy linen dress and did not reach for the champagne glass.

“Clare asked me to stay for dinner,” I said.

Margaret appeared at his elbow, adjusting her double-strand pearl necklace with two tight fingers.