"Besides," Brooke said, "You were always...the Club didn't quite suit you." While Stephanie was smart and strong and rich and beautiful and powerful and all of the other things that the Club liked the members of their Inner Circle to have, she also had a sense of integrity and dignity and social warmth that some of the members seemed to lack.

As much as Brooke didn't want to admit it, Stephanie was better than that. Brooke herself had only been groomed for the Club, first by her mother, then by her father.

She pulled away, then, her eyes searching Stephanie's face. "Marcelo. You guys had a fight that night. Is he...is he aware of what's going on with you?" Okay, she didn't much care for the man because he wasn't a proper New York society person, but she had clearly felt Stephanie's love for him.

It was dazzlingly, painfully pure. Or at least it seemed that way to Brooke.

"I'm sure he's hurting, too."