Free Happily Ever Afton by Kelly Curry

much time with her at the office. By the time he died – a premature death from what the doctors’ said was a heart condition caused by stress and exhaustion from his all-consuming job – his new wife had spent all the money he’d made on designer clothes and jewelry and expensive homes here and in the south of France.’
    Afton paused in her painful recollection.
    ‘There was absolute nothing left of the fortune he’d made and my mother had to go back to work as a nurse to support us. I guess that’s why she’s almost obsessed with me marrying well – so I never have to go through what she did. She was thrilled when Jason and I got engaged and she found out he was an editor at the paper. I haven’t had the nerve to tell her we broke up yet…I said we’d just decided to postpone it a few months – until we could buy a house…’
    Cooper was grimly silent digesting all this and Afton blinked rapidly as though clearing bad memories from her darkened eyes.
    ‘Hey, I’m sorry;’ she swatted his arm playfully; ‘I didn’t mean to get all maudlin on you, Cooper. It’s time for your first murder to get started – don’t let me be the death of the party!’
    Cooper smiled at her pun, shelving their very revealing conversation for a more appropriate time when he hoped to revisit it and make her see not everyone with money was cut from the same cloth.
    Especially not him!
    After turning in their tickets, he steered Afton to the main exhibition hall where the crowd gathered admired the artwork hanging on stark white walls with waiters in red jackets scattered throughout, offering crystal flutes of champagne off polished silver trays expertly held aloft in the air. Cooper snagged two glasses of the pale golden bubbles, handing one to Afton. She was just thanking him when his name was shouted out for what was to be the first of many times that night.
    ‘Cooper,’ an elegantly dressed, silver-haired man greeted him warmly with a pat on his back, ‘good to see you this evening, my boy!’
    ‘Evening, Baxter,’ Cooper greeted the president of the firm and his close mentor since college with a handshake and some trepidation. ‘Er…Baxter Worth, I’d like you to meet Afton Lanford.’
    ‘Nice to meet you, my dear,’ Baxter greeted Afton with an admiring smile. ‘Cooper, I was just telling Margaret all about your latest trip so you’ll have to stop by our table later and give her more details. She’s off in the ladies room now powdering her nose, or whatever else you gentle ladies really do in there,’ he said with a wink at Afton before turning his attention back to Cooper.
    ‘She just can’t believe you made it back in one piece, Cooper, thinks you’re absolutely stark raving mad! But I told her you’d already climbed five m – ’
    ‘I’ll definitely stop by and tell her all about it,’ Cooper interrupted quickly, whirling away Afton before Baxter Tyler Worth could finish his sentence.
    Something he wasn’t used to, Baxter thought with a frown of consternation. But looking at the beautiful, very classy woman , he approved silently, accompanying his up-and-coming Managing Director, he understood why he might want to spend time alone with her and he turned with a smile to search for his own loving wife, Muffy, amongst the crowd.
     
     
    Having dodged one bullet, Cooper turned right into another.
    ‘Good evening, sir,’ said his eager-beaver young assistant just recently graduated top of his business class in college and, as he’d told Cooper numerous times, thrilled to have been hired by the man whose funding and investment deals were already becoming renowned in the industry. ‘It’s a wonderful event tonight isn’t it, sir?’
    Sir?  Afton mouthed to Cooper behind his back, her amused smile questioning the formality.
    ‘Er…hello, Ryan.’ Cooper ran a finger beneath the lightly starched collar of the shirt that was beginning to feel uncomfortably tight around his throat. ‘Afton