I arrived in a simple black dress, and I did not arrive alone, though the people I brought waited outside for their moment.

Savannah spotted me near the entrance and nearly laughed her wine out of her glass.

“You actually dared to come here?” she said, delighted, raising the glass at me like a toast to my nerve.

My father crossed the room fast, his face already red.

“You freeze my company’s accounts,” he hissed, low, close to my ear, “you humiliate me at my own bank, and then you have the gall to walk into my event?”

“Your event?” I said, and I let one eyebrow rise.