Not as an assistant.
Not as a woman who was good with details.
In my own right.
When the applause faded, Christopher stepped forward.
“Well,” he said brightly, “I suppose I deserve a little credit for encouraging her all these years.”
The silence that followed was worse than laughter.
I turned my head slowly.
Christopher smiled at me as though we were sharing a harmless marital joke.
James did not smile.
“Did you?” he asked.
Christopher seemed to hear the danger this time.
“I only mean that Natalie and I discuss business constantly.
We sharpen each other.”
That was when I realized what he was doing.
He was no longer simply embarrassed.
He was trying to attach himself to the work.
I closed the folder.
“No,” I said.
One word.
Christopher blinked.
“No?”
“We don’t discuss this work constantly.”
His expression hardened for the smallest fraction of a second.
“Natalie, come on.”
“You told me it was too specialized.”
Someone near the fireplace shifted uncomfortably.
Christopher’s smile became rigid.
“That was obviously a joke.”
“You also told me I might be getting in over my head.”
“We’re really doing this here?” he muttered.
James answered before I could.
“You brought it here.”
Christopher looked at him.
James’s voice stayed perfectly civil.
“You just claimed involvement in work Natalie says you dismissed.
Those statements cannot both be true.”
My husband’s face reddened.
“I’m not claiming her work.”
“Good,” James said.
“Then there’s no problem.”
It should have ended there.
Christopher could have swallowed his pride, congratulated me, and survived the night with nothing worse than embarrassment.
Instead, he did what people often do when they feel power slipping away.
He reached harder for it.
“I just find this whole thing surprising,” he said.
“Fourteen months of private calls with a man my wife never thought to mention?”
The implication landed immediately.
I stared at him.
So did James.
Christopher had taken a professional relationship he had ignored and tried to make it sound improper because that version put me back on defense.
James’s expression cooled.
“Our calls included members of my team whenever the work required them,” he said.
“The engagement is documented from the first email forward.”
Christopher lifted both palms.
“I’m not accusing anyone.”
“You just did,” I said.
