Chapter 47

Cassandra Campbell had slipped into her husband’s restaurant for a quiet solo lunch when a snippet of conversation drifting from his office jolted her to a standstill. She paused just outside the half-open door, her hand resting lightly on the cool metal frame. It was an ordinary afternoon: the hum of kitchen chatter, the clink of silverware on plates, the scent of tomato sauce simmering in the back. Yet all that vanished the moment she caught Thomas’s voice, taut with anger, and Riley’s amused retort, echoing in the small hallway.

“You actually have the guts to come here after you tricked me?” Thomas demanded, his tone sharp like broken glass.

Riley’s laughter drifted back, casual and careless. “Come on. It’s your late wedding reception. It means you’re paying. It’s not that big a deal. We even gave you the receipt for proof, remember?”

Thomas’s exasperation rattled the frame. “You bastard! If not for my wife, I’d have canceled the whole reception thing!”