“Ladies and gentlemen,” Celeste purred over the speakers, magnified and inescapable. “Let’s pause our celebration a moment to raise a glass. It seems a member of the hired security detail has wandered away from the service elevator and lost her way into our family gathering.”

A cruel, sycophantic laugh rippled through the room.

“Let’s applaud her,” Celeste went on, her voice dripping. “It takes a special kind of bravery to wear a Halloween costume to a black-tie gala.”

My jaw clenched hard enough to ache. My husband pressed a warm, steadying hand to the small of my back. To this room, to this family, Caleb was the ultimate disappointment — the golden son who’d inexplicably joined the Army instead of taking his seat at the family hedge fund.

“We should leave,” I whispered.

“No,” Caleb murmured, his voice a low rumble. He stared at his mother on the stage, his eyes darker than I’d ever seen them. “We’re exactly where we need to be.”