Page 99

She gestures vaguely at me, the blanket still hanging from one shoulder, the untouched mail and probably the entire apartment.

“This is not a phase that requires intervention.”

“Good, because I am not staging an intervention,” Chloe says.

“I am giving you a deadline.”

“A deadline?”

“Yes. One more week, and then I am dragging Blaire Wilson back into her own life whether she likes it or not.”

I shake my head. Chloe reaches across the counter and taps the edge of my bowl with one finger.

“You are allowed to be heartbroken,” she says.

“You are allowed to be angry, miserable and completely useless for a little while. What you are not allowed to do is disappear because one man hurt you.”

I look down at the soup. She does not say Ross’s name. I’m grateful for that.

“I know,” I say.

“I know you know,” she replies.

I finish another few spoonfuls while Chloe keeps talking, and somewhere between her commentary about my terrible eating habits and a story about her husband’s latest parenting disaster, the conversation starts to feel normal again.

We take the conversation into the living room, and Chloe keeps talking while I settle back onto the sofa with my blanket. The conversation starts to feel normal.

After a while, Chloe reaches for the remote.

“What are you doing?” I ask.

She doesn’t answer immediately. Instead, she glances toward the television and narrows her eyes. I follow her gaze. The BBC financial news has been running quietly in the background since before she arrived. I hadn’t really been watching it. At least, that’s what I’ve been telling myself.

A headline moves across the bottom of the screen beneath a panel of commentators, and I catch the words Kensington Holdings before I can stop myself. A moment later Ross appears in a short clip leaving one of the company’s London offices in a dark suit, surrounded by security and cameras.

My stomach tightens.

The segment shifts to a discussion of the company’s transition under new leadership. Charles’s death has been public for weeks now, and Ross’s succession was formally announced not long after the funeral. The market uncertainty that followed has started to ease, and the ticker shows Kensington Holdings moving higher.

Chloe picks up the remote.

“Absolutely not,” she says.

“I wasn’t watching it.”

“You’ve had financial news running for at least two hours.”

“That doesn’t mean I was paying attention.”

Chloe looks at me.

“Blaire, having it on all day while pretending you’re not watching still counts as watching.”

“I like background noise.”

“You hate financial television.”

“That’s not true.”