Page 228 of Nobody Told Me Thrift Shops Sell Stolen Dragon Heirlooms

Rafe’s gaze went to them the moment we entered, and his grip tightened on my hand.

My parents stood a few steps beyond the relic display. They had driven up from Pennsylvania that morning, Mom in the navy dress she had worn to my law-school graduation and Dad in the only suit he owned. Both of them looked proud enough to make eye contact dangerous.

Mom saw me looking and waved with her whole arm.

“There she is,” Dad said as we reached them.

Mom hugged me, then took my face between her hands to inspect me. “You ate?”

“At the office.”

“A meal?”

“Food was present.”

Dad shook Rafe’s hand. “Thank you for arranging the car.”

“It was no trouble,” Rafe said.

“It was a five-hour drive,” I said.

Rafe’s expression remained innocent.

Max pressed against Mom’s knees, redirecting the family inquiry toward the person most qualified to receive attention. She bent to straighten his scarf.

“We should let you get settled,” I said, because Moira was approaching with champagne and the focus of an incoming weather system.

Mom squeezed my hand. “We’ll be right here.”

“Quinn!” Moira appeared from the left with two glasses of champagne. She handed me a glass. “You’re here. Good. Helena has been calm, which is how I know she’s about to terrorize everyone.”

“That’s comforting.”

“You look incredible. Max looks like he’s about to receive tenure.”

“He’s been preparing remarks,” I said.

Rafe looked down at Max. “He’ll keep them brief.”

Moira snorted. “Unlike some people. Nervous, Quinn?”

“No.”

She stared at me until heat crept up my neck.

“Yes.”

“There she is.” Her expression softened. “You earned it.”

“That seems to be the theme of the evening.”

“Good. Maybe repetition will help you accept it.”

Before I could answer, Helena Wallace stepped into the center of the room, and everyone went quiet.

I had spent months watching Helena own rooms by refusing to chase the people in them. She didn’t raise her voice or smile for approval. She stood still until attention came to her, and then she used it with surgical precision.

“Thank you all for coming. History is easier to admire when one doesn’t have to answer for who had paid its cost, and that is why we are all here tonight,” she said, then began speaking about the Virelli family’s recovered relics and cultural restitution as more than a legal mechanism. She thanked the experts, investigators, attorneys, archivists, and staff who had contributed to the case. She thanked Rafe with the respect one gave a client who had managed to be both difficult and correct often enough to earn it.