Diana opened a drawer. “I saw you and Andrew outside. You had your hand on his cheek. Are you getting back together then?” she asked.
“Oh, that,” Layla said. “No, that wasn’t anything. I was just saying good-bye.”
“I don’t believe you,” Diana said, her voice suddenly going from quivering to hard as stone.
“It’s true. There’s nothing between Andrew and me. In fact, I’m in love with…”
She stopped when Diana pulled a gun out of the desk drawer and pointed it straight at her.
Fear sent her heart into her stomach with a metallic thud, and she took a step back. “Diana, what are you doing?”
Diana set her mouth in a grim line, before saying, “I told you to leave Pittsburgh. But you didn’t listen to me, did you? So now, I’m going to have to kill you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
NATHAN had been looking for Matsuda for the last twenty minutes, but so far between guests stopping him to thank him for hosting the ball and fellow businessmen stopping him to inquire after the Japan deal, he hadn’t managed to actually connect with the man he hoped to be partnering with soon. So imagine his surprise when he found Matsuda at the edge of the party, talking in Japanese to his brother, who was now sporting a black eye, courtesy of the punch he’d delivered earlier.
Nathan rubbed his own jaw, which was beginning to swell from Andrew’s own hit before interrupting their conversation without preamble, “What’s going on here?”
“Ah, Mr. Sinclair,” Matsuda said, switching to English. “I was just congratulating the other Mr. Sinclair. Our company has decided to accept your offer of partnership for a Japan site.”
This was excellent news, what Nathan had been working toward all summer. But despite this, he turned to his brother and demanded, “Where’s Layla?”
Andrew squinted. “I’d thought she would have found you by now. She jumped out of the car when we got here and went looking for you. She mentioned a contract.”
“What?” Nathan said, even more confused now. But then it occurred to him: “Oh, she’s trying to find me to thank me for letting her out of the contract. Kate must have already told her.”
“What contract are we talking about?” Matsuda asked. “Is this Layla another business associate?”
“No,” Nathan answered.
Andrew took him by the arm. “May we have a minute. There are some things I need to discuss with Nathan. Afterwards, we’ll come back and toast our new partnership.”
Matsuda bowed. “Of course.”
Nathan barely had time to complete his bow before Andrew was tugging him away back toward the entrance foyer. “Okay, tell me about this contract,” he said as soon as they were out of earshot.
Nathan told him about both contracts, figuring he deserved to know the truth about what had gone down that summer. “But I guess, I’m a better man than either you or Layla thought, because I’m done trying to control her with contracts. If you two want to be together again, I’m not going to get in your way.”
Andrew shook his head with dawning realization. “You actually love her, don’t you?”
“Obviously, I love her,” Nathan answered. “And I want her to be happy, even if it’s with you.”
Andrew studied him, as if we were re-evaluating everything he thought he knew about his twin. In the end he heaved a sigh and said, “Okay, fine, I’ll be your best man.”
“What are you talking about?” Nathan asked.
“Layla was right about us needing to act like brothers again. We were actually doing okay before this summer, and we need to get back to that. So I’ll be your best man at your wedding and somehow I’ll forgive you for stealing Layla.”
“I didn’t steal her,” Nathan said. “And what do you mean you’ll be the best man at our wedding? What exactly happened between you and Layla?”
Andrew gave him a wry smile. “She chose you. I stated my best case for why she should be with me, and she chose you anyway. Again.”
Nathan went still. “What do you mean by ‘again.’”
Andrew studied his tuxedo lapel, unwilling to meet Nathan’s eyes. “I mean that kiss you saw ten years ago. It wasn’t Layla and me kissing. It was me kissing Layla, trying to convince her not to dump me, in order to be with you.”
Nathan’s fists clenched. “You let me believe all this time that she’d chosen you?”
Andrew raised his hands. “Don’t cause a scene,” he warned. “I already have to explain to everyone why I have a black eye. And if you hit me again, my offer to be your best man comes off the table.”
“You let me leave her in that hospital all alone, believing she didn’t want me?” Nathan continued. “Do you have any idea how much I loved her, love her now?”
“Obviously I didn’t, or I would have told you,” Andrew answered. “And I can’t believe you’re trying to make me feel guilty for not helping you to steal my girlfriend.”
“I didn’t steal her. I loved her more than you did, and she loved me back. She chose me.” Nathan said. Saying the words aloud filled him with a new wonder. He had spent all this time being bitter, but she had chosen him both then and now.
“Funny, that’s kind of what she said.”
Before Nathan could press him for further details, Kate came rushing toward them. “I saw Layla coming in, and I got everything reset up for the proposal.” Kate frowned, looking over both shoulders. “But where is she?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Nathan said.
“She must still be talking to Mrs. Sinclair—I mean Diana,” Kate said, correcting herself with a glance toward Andrew. “I saw them go into the library together after Layla arrived. Diana looked upset and I think Layla was trying to comfort her.”
They all exchanged knowing smiles. “Mystery solved,” Nathan said. He cut his eyes toward his brother. “I’m going to have delay my proposal because my future wife is too busy comforting your future ex-wife.”
Andrew shrugged. “Well, you know Layla. Maybe even better than I do at this point.”
Nathan’s phone vibrated in his tux pocket. After pulling it out, he checked the caller ID and saw it was Spencer Greeley. Maybe he had a break in the case.
“Excuse me,” he said to Kate and Andrew. He walked away without waiting for their answer. At that point nothing was a bigger priority than keeping Layla safe. “Do you have something?” Nathan asked.