Chapter 8 - The Gala
Two weeks after the canceled wedding, Northlake Children's Medical Center asked Emma whether she still wanted to finish the design for its winter benefit.
Her first instinct was to say no.
The gala had been one of the projects Cole watched her build from sketches.
Tessa had helped select social media vendors.
Too many parts of it carried fingerprints Emma wanted erased.
Then Dr. Lena Morris called her personally.
"The children still need the therapy wing," Lena said.
Emma sat at her studio desk.
"I know."
"And the room is still beautiful."
"Thank you."
"So do not let people who lied to you steal work you did honestly."
Emma closed her eyes.
That sentence decided it.
She returned to the gala project the next morning.
Bennett Studio had lost two private residential clients after the scandal became public.
Neither client admitted why.
One sent a vague email about "reputational concerns."
Emma printed it and pinned it beside her desk.
Not as punishment.
As evidence of what silence had cost her.
She told her staff the truth they needed to know.
Her identity had been misused.
The studio had not participated in improper payments.
Counsel and the bank were reviewing the matter.
No employee was under suspicion.
Then she told them one more thing.
"If anyone wants to leave because this feels too public, I will understand."
Her project manager, Sofia, stared at her.
"Are you firing us politely?"
Emma blinked.
"No."
"Good."
Sofia opened her laptop.
"Because the pediatric floor still has terrible lighting and I already ordered samples."
No one left.
The gala took place on the first Saturday in December.
For three weeks, Emma worked twelve-hour days.
She slept better when she was tired for reasons she chose.
Adrian did not visit the studio.
He sent documents through lawyers.
He answered questions directly.
He never used the investigation as an excuse to appear in her life.
Emma noticed that too.
The independent committee removed Cole from executive duties pending final findings.
Thomas Bell denied wrongdoing through counsel.
Nate entered a cooperation agreement with Marston under which he returned the missing documents and submitted to interviews.
Tessa closed North Coast Creative.
Emma learned that from a public filing, not from her sister.
The night of the gala, the hospital ballroom glowed with warm suspended lights and hundreds of paper stars created by pediatric patients.
Emma stood near the entrance adjusting one final display when a donor approached her.
"You must be Emma Bennett."
"I am."
The woman smiled too brightly.
"I have heard so much about you."
Emma knew immediately she did not mean design.
"I hope some of it involved the room."
The woman laughed awkwardly and moved on.
Emma returned to the display.
"Nicely done."
She recognized Adrian's voice before she turned.
He wore a black tuxedo and stood several feet away.
"You're here."
"The Marston Foundation has sponsored this event for nine years."
"Right."
Emma glanced around.
"I forgot."
"You had other things happening."
She looked at him.
"How is the investigation?"
"Still open."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only answer I can give at a charity gala."
Emma smiled despite herself.
Then she saw Cole enter the ballroom.
Her smile disappeared.
Adrian followed her gaze.
"I did not invite him."
"It's a public benefit."
"His ticket was purchased this afternoon."
Cole was not alone.
Tessa walked beside him.
Emma felt every muscle in her body tense.
Tessa wore a dark blue dress and looked nervous.
Cole looked composed in the way he always did when he wanted a room to believe him.
People noticed them immediately.
Whispers traveled faster than music.
Emma turned to Adrian.
"Do nothing."
His eyes met hers.
"I wasn't going to."
"Good."
"Unless you ask."
"I won't."
Cole approached fifteen minutes later.
Tessa stayed several steps behind him.
"Emma."
"Cole."
"Can we talk?"
"No."
His jaw tightened.
"You don't even know what I was going to say."
"That's true."
Emma adjusted a place card on the display.
"I also know I don't need to hear it during an event I worked four months to build."
Cole glanced at Adrian.
"Of course he's standing here."
Emma looked at him.
"He was standing here before you arrived."
"He always is now, isn't he?"
Adrian said nothing.
Emma felt anger rise.
"Do not make him responsible for the fact that I no longer want you near me."
Cole's face tightened.
Tessa stepped forward.
"Cole, let's go."
He ignored her.
"You know the fraud report is destroying me."
Emma stared at him.
"My name was used on a loan application."
"The loan never funded."
"Because the bank stopped it."
"No one lost money."
Emma looked around the ballroom full of donors raising money for sick children.
Then she looked back at him.
"You still think harm only counts after someone sends you an invoice."
Cole stepped closer.
Adrian shifted once.
Emma raised a hand without looking at him.
He stopped.
"Go home, Cole."
Cole's face hardened.
"This is what you wanted, isn't it?"
Emma frowned.
"What?"
"A reason to be done with me."
She stared at him in disbelief.
Then Tessa spoke.
"Stop."
Cole turned.
"What?"
Tessa's voice shook, but she kept going.
"Stop making her responsible for what we did."
The sentence silenced all three of them.
Cole stared at Tessa.
"We?"
"Yes."
She looked at Emma.
"We."
For the first time, Tessa did not say love made it complicated.
She did not say Cole chose her.
She did not say Emma's relationship had private problems.
She simply said we.
Cole laughed bitterly.
"So now you're on her side."
Tessa's face changed.
"There shouldn't have been sides."
Cole looked at her as if he had never seen her before.
Then he walked away.
Tessa remained.
Emma did not thank her.
Tessa did not ask to be thanked.
"I closed North Coast," she said.
"I know."
"I gave Hannah everything on my laptop."
"She told me."
Tessa nodded.
"There are messages you haven't seen yet."
Emma's stomach tightened.
"What kind?"
Tessa looked toward Cole across the room.
"The kind where he talks about your warehouse before he ever talks about leaving you."
Emma held her gaze.
"Then give them to Hannah."
"I did."
Tessa swallowed.
"One of them is about Adrian too."
Emma glanced toward him.
"What about him?"
"Cole said Adrian offered to buy your warehouse himself last year."
Emma turned fully toward Adrian.
His expression changed.
Not guilt.
Recognition.
"Is that true?"
Adrian looked at Tessa, then Emma.
"Not exactly."
Emma's eyes narrowed.
"That phrase has become expensive."
Adrian exhaled.
"Your grandfather offered the property to my father twelve years ago."
Emma stared at him.
"And?"
"My father declined."
"Why?"
"Because your grandfather wanted one condition in the deed."
"What condition?"
Adrian glanced around the crowded ballroom.
"Not here."
Emma felt the old frustration return.
"You just told me you would not hide information."
"I'm not hiding it."
He lowered his voice.
"I am telling you the condition involves both our fathers, and you should hear it where strangers are not holding champagne six feet away."
Tessa looked confused.
Emma's pulse quickened.
"When?"
"Tomorrow."
"No."
Adrian met her eyes.
"Emma."
"After the gala."
He studied her for a moment.
Then nodded.
"After the gala."
At eleven forty that night, after the final donor left and the last centerpiece was packed away, Adrian drove Emma to a private records office near the old docks.
He opened a fireproof cabinet.
Inside was a file marked BENNETT - PIER NINE.
Emma stared at her grandfather's name on the tab.
Adrian placed the file on the table.
"Before you open this, there is something you need to understand."
Emma looked at him.
"Your grandfather did not refuse to sell because of money."
"Then why?"
Adrian opened the file.
On top was a handwritten letter signed by Richard Marston.
Beneath it was another signed by Emma's grandfather, Samuel Bennett.
May you like
Adrian's voice was quiet.
"Because he believed the Marstons had cheated his business partner thirty years ago."
