Victor attended the Walker engagement dinner.
He had not been invited.
He had not not been invited.
The event had sixty guests and his family had always been adjacent to Walker circles in the specific way of two powerful families who had spent eleven years in opposition and before that had been, occasionally, in the same rooms.
He received no invitation.
He was not excluded.
He came.
-----
He moved through the room correctly.
Polite.
Unobtrusive.
The specific invisibility of a man who knew how to be present without being noticed — a skill he had developed young and had found, over the years, to be one of the more useful ones.
He accepted a glass of wine.
He spoke to three people.
He said nothing of consequence to any of them.
He watched.
-----
Alehandra was performing perfectly.
She always did.
She stood beside Kendrick in the specific way of a woman who had spent twelve years building toward a particular kind of presence.
Composed.
Elegant.
