Page 26 of Careless Whisper (Modern Vintage Romances #11)

Elias

I didn’t want to be at the damned gala.

My father had texted me no fewer than six times with increasingly pointed variations of ‘ it would mean a lot to your mother if you showed up ,’ which was code for putting on a suit and pretending to care about cocktails and donors so we look like a united medical dynasty.

I loathed these events, the forced smiles, the endless small talk. But I couldn’t get out of it—I knew my duty as a Graham. All the families in our social circles were the same. There was duty and obligation and that damned question, ‘ What will people think?’

I stood at the back of the crowded ballroom, trying to stay away from the people I was supposed to mingle with—people who tossed around “philanthropy” like it was currency.

I felt like a fucking rat on a wheel—trapped at the Graham Medical Innovation Fund’s benefit in a glass-walled ballroom at the top of the Prudential Center, staring out over the Charles River, wearing a tux that didn’t feel like mine, drinking too-warm champagne, and trying not to scream.

My father stood by the donor wall, talking shop with the head of a biotech firm.

My mother was circling potential funders for her latest cardiac research push.

I’d already ducked out of three conversations with my mother’s friends who introduced me as “ our Elias, the heart surgeon !” like I was a show dog, which I was.

These were the times I wished I wasn’t an only child.

Maybe if I had siblings, their focus would be diluted, perhaps someone else could be their fucking heart surgeon.

Maren was with her parents, gleaming in a silver dress like she’d stepped out of a Town even the friendship was now in tatters. “But there is something I’d like to say.”

She came closer and angled her head expectantly.

“Stop telling people we’re engaged,” I said more loudly than I needed to.

She shrank back as a few people around us gasped. She swallowed nervously.

“We’re not, and we will never be engaged. You and I used to be friends. We’re now merely colleagues, until?—”

“This is about that gold-digging nurse, the one you’re fucking again?” She kept her voice down. She didn’t want to create a scene, and in truth, my mother would kill me for not being discreet, but I was at the edge of my patience.

“Who?”

“Oh.” She smiled now, maliciously. I’d seen that affectation before and had not paid much mind to it, but now I saw it for what it was: the manipulation of a narcissist. “You thought no one knew? People saw you both leave the on-call room after the incident in the OR with that prisoner she didn’t sedate properly.

People heard you in the on-call room. You know how hospitals are.

” Her tone went steely. “I wonder what Dr. Cabrera would say when he finds out you were sleeping with the nurse this whole nonsense is about.”

“Dr. Cabrera already knows,” I said, taking great pleasure in her shock. “Harper Memorial doesn’t have a non-fraternization policy.”

“Whatever, Elias.” She sipped her drink, sliding right back into her society-belle persona. “I spoke to your father by the way, told him what you were up to. He isn’t happy with you.”

I leaned closer to Maren, wondering how I ever thought we were friends, how I ever trusted her. “And you think my daddy is going to be bringing me to heel?”

Her jaw clenched at my amused tone.

“My father and I have an understanding. I show up for him, and he shows up for me. He’s not going to take your side on one damn thing.”

“I’m going to make sure you’re the one who’s fired after that investigation,” Maren threatened, her eyes sparkling with anger.

I chuckled. “Well, you’re an expert at shifting blame, aren’t you? ”

I wanted to throw my drink in her face. Instead, I turned away. I had not even taken two steps when I saw?—

Reggie?

Standing near the silent auction table, in a sleek black dress that screamed designer, was…Reggie Sanchez.

My pulse jumped.

She was talking to someone older—a woman in gold and pearls, who was laughing like she’d just told someone off. The man beside her—tall and gray-haired—watched her fondly.

They looked familiar. I had seen them before, and…then it clicked. Stephen and Faye Lancaster. What the hell was Reggie doing with them? What the hell was she doing here in Boston at my family’s gala event?

She caught me looking. For a second, her eyes widened and then she turned her back to me. Faye Lancaster peered over Reggie’s shoulder and looked at me. She nodded and I greeted her in the same way. Then she shot me a dirty look that surprised me.

What the fuck is going on?

Mr. and Mrs. Lancaster started to walk toward me, and I knew whatever was coming wasn’t going to be good. They knew Reggie, which meant they knew about me. How on earth did Reggie even know these people ?

Maren, oblivious as ever, gasped. “Oh God, it’s the Lancasters.”

I looked at her, baffled. Didn’t she see Reggie with them? The Reggie whose career she’d fucked with twice.

“Mr. Lancaster, it’s such a pleasure to meet you again.” She held her hand out for a shake, and he obliged. “Mrs. Lancaster, I was so delighted to talk to you and the other members of the Lancaster Foundation board about my trial and?—”

“You are Dr. Elias Graham,” Stephen Lancaster spoke over Maren.

“Yes.”

We shook hands, and Mrs. Lancaster glared at me.

Fuck me! She knew Reggie, and she knew who I was to her, and Faye Lancaster wasn’t happy with me.

“Dr. Graham and I work together at Harper Memorial, and he will, of course, be a big part of this trial.” Maren tugged at my arm as if we were together .

I flinched and pulled away.

Maren, who didn’t care who was saying or feeling what when she was out to get what she wanted—and this time, it was the Lancaster Foundation money—continued stalwartly, “Elias, I met with the Lancaster Foundation just this morning. It was such a great meeting.”

My eyes scanned the room, looking for Reggie, and found her with…Jason Lancaster. He had his arm around her, and he was talking to her. They stood close to gether, familiar with one another. Reggie knew the family. I did not doubt that. Was she dating Jason? He was known to be a playboy.

“ Was it a great meeting?” Faye Lancaster smiled in a way that didn’t hide her disdain for Maren and me. “Dr. Graham, I have heard so many things about you.”

She didn’t say so many great things, I noted and bobbed my head in acknowledgment, the same head that she wanted to trample on.

Maren looked confused for a moment and then beamed. “I think it was…ah…did you?—”

“You know we have a common acquaintance,” Faye Lancaster cut Maren off.

Maren arched an eyebrow. “We do?”

A smile curved my lips, despite myself. Maren was thinking she was going to get the grant from Lancaster, and I now knew that she wouldn’t get a dime and I was probably going to get my ass kicked, deservedly so.

“My granddaughter,” Faye announced.

My breath caught. Say what?

And then, as realization struck, I let out a choked laugh.

Damn! And Maren had just called Reggie a gold digger?

“What’s so funny, Dr. Graham?” Faye demanded, her eyes blazing.

I shook my head, unable to pull my lips back into a straight line. “I’m just enjoying the show, Mrs. Lancaster. Please continue. ”

Her eyes sparkled with amusement, and Stephen Lancaster patted my shoulder. “You’re not as stupid as I thought you’d be.”

“Sir, I can assure you that I am far more stupid than you think.”

Maren looked at all of us in confusion, like she had just walked into the theatre in the middle of a play.

“Come, you must meet my son and granddaughter.” Faye waved a hand toward the general direction where Reggie and Jason were.

“Of course, I’d love to meet them,” Maren tittered, certain that she was in now since Faye Lancaster was introducing her to family.

We followed them toward the far side of the room, Maren practically buzzing beside me like she was being escorted to a coronation.

Reggie turned the moment she saw us approaching.

Her jaw locked, the flicker of tension behind her eyes enough to tell me she was seconds from walking out.

Jason glanced at his niece and gave her a slight, steadying nod.

They were close—anyone could see that. This kind of familial closeness you couldn’t fake.

Maren’s gasp was audible when she saw Reggie.

Jason offered me a polite, neutral handshake. “Dr. Graham.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Jason. Please call me Elias,” I said, barely managing to make my voice sound human.

Jason then shook hands with Maren, who was trying to be sociable but was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. The fact that she still hadn’t put two and two together either meant she was too stupid to see the writing on the wall or was purposefully blind. I put my money on the latter.