Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN AT TABLE SEVEN
The next morning, Dela went to work.
Not because she wasn't frightened.
Because she had learned that fear became more useful when you carried it quietly.
At 6:10, she entered the Meridian dining room.
Gus Vandermir was already there.
Alone.
He sat at the same table where she had served him the previous week.
He was reading a financial report.
When he looked up, his eyes immediately went to her face.
Then her hands.
Then her stomach.
"You shouldn't be working this much."
Dela stopped.
"I'm sorry?"
"You're pregnant."
"So are several women in Chicago."
Something almost resembling amusement crossed his face.
"You always answer like that?"
"Only when people ask questions that aren't their business."
Gus closed the report.
"Fair."
Dela put down his coffee.
He didn't touch it.
Instead, he said quietly, "Did you know Elias?"
Her heart stopped.
She kept her expression neutral.
"My husband?"
"Yes."
"You knew him?"
"I knew of him."
That answer was too carefully constructed.
Dela stepped back.
"Excuse me."
"Dela."
She stopped.
Nobody called her that in the Meridian unless they knew her personally.
Gus lowered his voice.
"Your husband came to my office two days before he died."
She turned around.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You just said he came to your office."
"He did."
"And you don't know why?"
"I wasn't there."
Dela stared at him.
"Then who was?"
Gus's jaw tightened.
"Margot."
His fiancée.
The woman who would marry him in six weeks.
Dela felt the room become suddenly colder.
"Margot knew Elias?"
"I believe she did."
That was all he said.
Then a woman's voice floated across the dining room.
"Augustine?"
Margot Sinclair approached wearing a cream coat and diamonds that caught every chandelier.
She smiled at Gus.
Then at Dela.
Her smile disappeared.
"What is she doing here?"
Dela said nothing.
Gus looked at his fiancée.
"She works here."
"I meant why is she talking to you?"
The question landed harder than it should have.
Gus slowly stood.
"Because I asked her to."
Margot's eyes narrowed.
For one second, Dela saw something beneath the polished exterior.
Not jealousy.
Fear.
Then Margot smiled.
"Of course."
She walked away.
Gus watched her go.
Dela whispered, "She knows something."
"I think so."
"And you're still marrying her?"
His eyes met hers.
May you like
"Not anymore."
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