The Wife Who Knew Too Much(53)
“You were a friend of hers, I take it?” I said.
“A friend of Nina’s? Hah, no. I’m the head of the PR department. I’m here tonight to figure out how to sell this stinker of a deal to the shareholders.”
The waiter returned with our drinks. I sipped my club soda. Lauren took a long pull of her martini. A couple of women sat down across from us on the other side of the table. They said perfunctory hellos to Lauren, who didn’t bother introducing me. I noticed them shooting glances in my direction, whispering behind their hands. Were they talking about the emerald necklace, too? A waiter came around, filling glasses with white wine. I put my hand over my wineglass. The meal service began, and I focused on the food, taking a bite of buttery langoustine. As delicious as it was, I no longer had an appetite.
“The Real Housewives are trash-talking you, I see,” Lauren said, leaning close enough that I caught a whiff of gin.
“I don’t know why they’d waste their time on me.”
She’d finished her drink and proceeded to drain the glass of wine.
“Oh, you’re a very interesting topic. Nobody can understand how you pulled it off. Connor’s a free man, in line to inherit Nina’s fortune, and he turns around and gets married to some waitress he meets at a dive up in the boondocks. Some might wonder what you have on him.”
“Did you ever think that maybe he fell in love?” I said, starting to get annoyed.
“Please, Connor Ford is not capable of love.”
That upset me. Who did she think she was, talking about my husband like that?
“What the hell do you know?”
“Oh, I know plenty,” she said, setting the glass down unsteadily, her eyes lit with fierce urgency. “Connor used to work for me. And when he did, we were very close, until someone better came along. Hindsight is twenty-twenty. By the time I realized what a player he was, he was already Mr. Nina Levitt. He forgot me so fast. Anyway, karma, right? Nina got hers. Look at Connor now, so cozy with Hank, in the middle of every deal. They used to hate each other. Then Connor signed off on getting in deeper on this Saudi thing when Nina was against it. She would’ve found a way to tank this deal if she were alive. But what do you know?” She raised an eyebrow drunkenly. “She’s dead, conveniently for some people.”
Lauren was obviously drunk, plus, she had an agenda. Yet, Connor had as good as admitted to me that he’d married Nina for her money. It was plausible that he’d been with Lauren at some point for career advancement, too. Being with me had changed him. He’d told me that repeatedly. I’d ignore Lauren, except for the fact that, in her drunken ranting state, she’d made the one accusation that I most feared. And loudly enough for others to overhear.
“I’m just trying to understand, since you’re slurring your words so badly,” I said, in a low tone. “Did you mean to insinuate that Nina was murdered? If you did, I need to let my husband know that you’re over here slandering him.”
Her eyes widened in alarm, and she laughed.
“You go, girl. No, the party line is absolutely that Nina killed herself. And why shouldn’t she? She was a nasty old bitch who everybody hated, including yours truly. Don’t pay me any mind. I’m nobody. Just a flack who’s had a few too many. Speaking of.”
The waiter was going around the table with bottles of wine. Lauren pushed her glass forward to be refilled.
“The white burgundy is excellent. Six hundred a bottle on the menu, you really should try it.”
“No, thank you,” I said, shaking my head at the waiter.
She looked at my empty glass, then at my face, then at my midsection, which was looking rather pronounced in the fitted black dress.
“God, I’m such a dolt. So that’s why he married you. Holy shit.”
I stood up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you’ll excuse me.”
I teetered away on the stiletto heels, going to hide out in a stall in the ladies’ room. I stayed there for long enough that Connor texted to say he’d noticed I was gone and was I okay.
In the bathroom, not feeling great, I wrote.
My poor girl. Sorry I got mad. Everything feels shaky. Do you need to leave? Should I come get you and bring you home to bed?
Feeling a little better, be out soon.
If Connor was willing to walk out of his important business dinner to take care of me, then things must be okay. At the very least, I hadn’t ruined our marriage. And nothing else mattered. Even if everything Lauren had said was true, I wouldn’t care. Connor had made mistakes in the past. He was honest about them. He’d told me he’d married Nina for the wrong reasons. Not to use her, but because he’d been dazzled by her wealth and fame. Who wouldn’t be? I was dazzled by his now. Did that make me a user? I didn’t think so. We’ve all done things we’re not proud of. I was no different. I had an arrest record that Connor didn’t know about. I kept struggling for a good moment to tell him that, along with the fact that I’d been at Windswept the night Nina died. And so had Derek. But I didn’t murder Nina. Connor didn’t either. The miracle was, he and I were together again. We were having a baby. He was a changed man because of it. I believed that. I believed in him. I couldn’t let some drunken ex-girlfriend with an ax to grind shake my faith in the man I loved. I shouldn’t even let her ruin our evening.