The grand receiving room still pulsed with the echoes of Williams's announcement. Though conversation had resumed, laughter even bubbling up now and then between remarks, a quiet undercurrent of tension ran just beneath the surface.
Roman leaned back in his seat beside Tessy, his expression unreadable, but his eyes had not missed the slight shift in Vanessa's composure when Williams introduced Dexter as his son and Dera as his woman.
Elena, caught it too. Yet none of them said anything about it. Not Roman, not Elena, and certainly not Tessy.
But Tessy noticed something else, something no one else seemed to see.
While all eyes had shifted to Dera and the boy, to Elena's reaction and Williams's explanation, there was one gaze that never left Vanessa. It wasn't suspicious or scrutinizing. It wasn't laced with judgment or curiosity. No. It was longing.
And the eyes belonged to Daniel.
