Chapter 3

A month later, Adrian arrived to take me to his mother's Sunday dinner.

His sedan stopped outside Shaw Tower at six. I walked down the front steps while my chief of staff finished a call behind me. Adrian lowered the passenger window.

Lily smiled at me from my seat.

"Hi, Claire. You look gorgeous."

The seat was pushed forward to fit her shorter legs. My temperature setting had been changed from sixty-eight to seventy-four. A paper cup sat in the holder where I kept my sunglasses.

Adrian leaned toward the window. "We're dropping Lily near my mother's place. She gets carsick in the back."

I opened the passenger door.

"Get out."

Lily blinked. "It's only a short ride."

"Then you'll enjoy the fresh air while you arrange another one."

She turned to Adrian. He rubbed a hand over the steering wheel.

"Lily, let Claire sit there."

She climbed out slowly, clutching her purse. When she reached for the rear door, I closed my hand over the handle before she could open it.

"You're not riding with us."

Adrian's gaze met mine over the roof. He knew I wasn't reacting to a random coworker accepting a harmless ride. Three days earlier, I had mentioned that the passenger memory had been erased after the car's service appointment, and he had reset it for me himself. Lily had changed it again. My scarf, which I had left folded in the door pocket that morning, had been pushed into the back.

She had not stumbled into my place. She had arranged herself in it.

Her face tightened. "Mr. Cole offered. My apartment is on the way."

"You work for a company that pays six-figure executive-assistant salaries. Do you have the rideshare app?"

"Of course I do."

"Wonderful."

I took two twenties from my wallet and tucked them into the outside pocket of her purse.

"That should cover it. Get home safely."

She pulled the bills out as if they were contaminated.

"You think you can throw money at me because you're rich? I may not have what you have, but I have dignity."

"Your dignity requires my husband to drive you home?"

"That's not what I said."

"No. You said the ride was necessary until I paid for another one. Now the money is insulting because what you wanted wasn't transportation."

Adrian got out of the car. "Claire, that's enough."

I looked at him over the roof. "You're right. It is."

I called my chief of staff, who had paused several yards away with the good sense to pretend she couldn't hear us.

"Maya, add a ten-percent transportation allowance for Shaw Group directors and above. Offer the same reimbursement to Cole Group employees assigned to our joint venture. If senior staff are relying on the CEO for rides, our policy is inadequate."

"I'll have the proposal in your inbox tonight," she said.

Lily's eyes shone. "You are humiliating me on purpose."

"I'm solving the problem you gave me. If you wanted privacy, you shouldn't have placed yourself in my seat."

I got into the car and reset it. Adrian stood outside for another second, jaw tight, before walking around to the driver's side.

He drove away without saying goodbye to Lily.

For five blocks, neither of us spoke.

Then he said, "Her lease is near Mom's house. I was being considerate."

"You were being familiar."

"It's a seat, Claire."

"It's the seat I use every time I ride with you. She knew that. You knew it. She changed my settings, and you expected me to climb into the back while she sat beside you."

"I didn't expect anything."

"That is the problem."

He glanced at me in the mirror.

"The dinner was strike one," I said. "Today is strike two."

"You can't run a marriage like a performance review."

"Then don't behave like an employee who ignores the same instruction twice."

"Listen to yourself." He tightened his hands on the wheel. "Everything has a policy. Every mistake has a consequence."

"Would you prefer a consequence you couldn't predict?"

"I'd prefer a wife who trusted me."

"Trust is not pretending I didn't see what happened. Trust is telling you directly and believing you'll make a better choice next time. I did that after dinner."

He had no answer that didn't require admitting the second choice had been deliberate.

The muscle in his cheek moved.

I kept my voice even. "I'm not asking you to stop employing women. I'm asking you to maintain the boundaries you had for years before Lily arrived. That should not be difficult."

He faced the road again.

By the time we reached the Cole estate, his silence had hardened into resentment.

I unfastened my seat belt. "Our joint venture is in the middle of a financing round. We will not carry a private argument into a family dinner."

"Naturally," he said. "Wouldn't want anyone to think Claire Shaw had lost control."

I linked my arm through his as we approached the front door.

"Smile, Adrian. Your mother is watching from the window."

He smiled.

It looked almost real.