Caleb forced a laugh.
“Sibling joke.
Lena knows how we are.”
I said nothing.
That silence was the first crack in his performance.
Caleb rushed to fill it.
“We give each other a hard time.
She’s always been the creative one.
I’m the corporate one.”
Silas glanced again at the kids’ table.
“And this seating arrangement is part of the joke?”
Caleb’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But I saw it.
He had finally realized that the room he had spent all evening arranging into a hierarchy was now watching him explain why his own sister had been placed beside a booster seat.
“It was a logistics issue,” he said quickly.
“Last-minute guests.
Lena was flexible.”
I picked up one of Leo’s crayons and turned it between my fingers.
“Apparently the VP of Marketing’s husband owns a fund.”
Somebody at the next table coughed into a napkin.
Caleb stared at me.
Silas looked almost amused.
“Does he?”
Caleb lowered his voice.
“Can we discuss this somewhere private?”
That was when his bride, Natalie, appeared.
She moved quickly across the ballroom, one hand gathering the skirt of her wedding dress.
She had clearly noticed the cluster forming around Table Nineteen and understood immediately that something had gone wrong.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
Caleb answered too fast.
“Perfect.”
Silas stood from the tiny chair and offered it back to Leo with solemn ceremony.
“Thank you for the loan.”
Leo nodded.
Then Silas looked at me.
“I actually came over because there’s something I need your judgment on before Monday.
Nothing that can’t wait until after dinner.”
He tapped the black folder.
Caleb’s eyes followed his hand.
“What kind of judgment?”
Silas paused.
I knew that pause.
I had seen it on video calls when someone interrupted him before he had finished a thought.
“The kind I hired her for.”
Caleb went quiet.
Natalie looked from him to me.
“You work for Nebula?”
“Independent consultant,” I said.
“Mostly executive communications.”
Silas nodded.
“She is being modest.”
Caleb’s grip tightened around his champagne glass.
Silas continued.
“The UN address last week was a difficult project.
Several teams contributed research, but Lena shaped the final narrative with me.”
