If she’s relieved, she doesn’t show it.
Vivian rises with her glass, smiling warmly. “Thank you all for coming. It means a lot to us.” Her gaze shifts to Sienna. “And Sienna—welcome to the family. Officially.”
There’s a chorus of agreement, glasses raised.
“Please,” Vivian adds. “Let’s eat.”
The staff moves in seamlessly, plates arriving in perfect timing. Conversation resumes easily. Roman leans back in his chair, fork suspended. “The Barcelona expansion closed last week. Quietly. No noise, no delays. Have I mentioned that to anyone?”
Lev smirks. “Because you finally listened and stopped trying to bulldoze city officials.”
“Correction,” Roman says. “I paid the right ones.”
Laughter moves around the table.
Sienna lifts her glass slightly. “Barcelona is temperamental. If you push too hard, it pushes back. It prefers subtlety.”
Roman blinks, surprised. “You’ve done business there?”
“Adjacent. I helped my father,” she says lightly. “I consulted on a redevelopment project near El Born. Cultural districts are easier to reshape when you respect the history first.”
Lev nods, impressed. “That explains why the city council approved the zoning change so fast.”
She smiles. “They like being seen as guardians, not obstacles.”
I glance at her despite myself. She’s not showing off. She’s just…fluent, knowledgeable.
Am I turned on or furious? I don’t know.
The conversation shifts to business successes, upcoming travel, gallery openings in Milan and Paris. Dimitri talks about a new property in Lisbon. Vivian mentions an exhibition in Vienna.
Sienna joins in naturally.
She speaks about architecture in Florence, about a curator she met in Berlin. Her voice is steady, confident. She asks questions. She listens. She laughs in the right places.
If anyone were watching closely, they’d never guess we spent last night tangled together in silence and tension.
I stay quiet.
I watch her from the corner of my eye—the way she gestures lightly with her fork, the way her smile never quite reaches too deep. She doesn’t look at me. Not once.
She’s flawless.
Composed.
Untouchable.
And sitting right beside me, she feels farther away than she did five years ago.
That, more than anything else tonight, unsettles me.
Midway through dinner, Vivian leans closer to Sienna, lowering her voice. I shouldn’t care. I do anyway, so I strain my ears and still my movements to eavesdrop.
“I couldn’t be happier about your marriage to Sebastian,” Vivian whispers. “You deserve someone who understands you. Someone who sees you the way you should be seen.”
Sienna rolls her eyes, the movement small but unmistakable. Vivian chuckles softly and pulls back, clearly amused.
They return to their plates like nothing happened, slipping easily back into the conversation as Dimitri launches into a story about a disastrous meeting in Milan. Sienna laughs at the right moments, adds a comment here and there, perfectly composed.
