"Mr. Rodriguez, I need to go get ready for my performance now. But first, I have to ask you something really important."
"What's that, sweetheart?"
Emma looked up at him with the serious expression she wore for life's most crucial moments.
"After I play tonight and after all this scary business stuff is finished, will you please, please, please ask my mom to marry you? Because Mia and I have decided we want to be real sisters, not just best friends."
The lobby of the Orpheum Theater fell completely silent. Victoria's face turned the approximate color of her evening gown. Ethan felt every eye in the room focused on him.
And for the first time in years, he knew exactly what to say.
* * *
The Orpheum Theater lobby had never been quieter.
Phoenix's social elite, business leaders, politicians, philanthropists, stood frozen in anticipation, champagne glasses halfway to their lips, waiting for Ethan's response to Emma's earnest marriage proposal on behalf of her mother.
Ethan looked down at Emma's expectant face, then at Mia, who was practically vibrating with excitement beside her, then finally at Victoria, whose expression cycled rapidly through mortification, hope, and terror.
"Emma," he said gently, kneeling to her eye level while the crowd held its collective breath. "That's a very important question, the kind that grown-ups need to discuss privately before they can give you a proper answer."
Emma's face fell slightly. "Does that mean no?"
"It means," Ethan said, standing and taking Victoria's trembling hand, "that your mom and I need to have a very serious conversation. But first, don't you have a piano performance to give? Because I think everyone here is very excited to hear you play."
Emma's eyes brightened immediately. "Oh, you're right. I almost forgot why we're here."
She grabbed Mia's hand. "Come on, best friend. Let's go backstage so I can show you where the real piano magic happens."
As the two girls disappeared toward the performance areas, the crowd gradually began to disperse back into normal pre-show mingling. Though Ethan could feel curious glances and hear whispered conversations about the romantic drama that had just unfolded.
Victoria looked like she wanted to disappear into the marble floor. "I am so sorry. Emma has apparently decided that subtlety is overrated."
"She gets that from someone," Ethan said with a smile, squeezing her hand. "But Victoria, she's not wrong. We do need to talk."
Before Victoria could respond, David Kim appeared beside them with his tablet and an expression that suggested their evening of revelations wasn't over yet.
"Victoria, we have a problem. Judge Caldwell just got a call from his office. Catherine Wells didn't flee. She's been making phone calls to every major news outlet in Phoenix."
"She's claiming that tonight's confrontation was a setup. That you orchestrated this entire situation to publicly humiliate Blackstone because he was interfering in your personal relationship."
Ethan felt his stomach drop. "Can she do that?"
"She can try," Judge Caldwell said with a grim expression. "Catherine is spinning this as a story about corporate manipulation and abuse of power. She's telling reporters that Sterling Dynamics manufactured this entire romance to gain leverage in a real estate dispute."