Good Sister, The by Diana Diamond

She found a huge paper wedding bell suspended in the engineering conference room and a magnum of champagne waiting in her office. She immediately popped the cork and invited her entire staff for a drink.
    Catherine heard she was in the building and rushed to find her. She and Jennifer hugged, danced in a circle, and sipped champagne. And then Peter came to wish her well, apologizing for the pain he must have caused her.
    When Jennifer was alone with her sister, she bubbled with the happiness she had found in her new husband. “I’m doing stupid, frivolous things that I never would have done before,” she reported, and then asked, “Have you ever slept a whole night on a beach?” Catherine had, but she didn’t let on.
    Jennifer bounced into Peter’s office to say that she really did understand his responsibilities for the business, that as usual he was right, and that she would be happy to put all his concerns to rest. “I told Padraig about the prenuptial agreement, and he said he’d be happy to sign anything you have drawn up, unless it’s a temperance pledge.” Peter laughed and promised that the document would avoid any mention of her husband’s habits. By the end of the day, she was hard at work with her usual energy and even more than her typical enthusiasm.

    “Do you believe him?” Catherine asked Peter, referring to O’Connell’s willingness to sign away his financial claims on Jennifer and her stock.
    “She believes him. And Jennifer is nobody’s fool.”
    “But in matters of the heart, maybe just a bit out of her league?”
    “I hope she’s right,” he answered. “I care a great deal about Jennifer, and I wouldn’t want to see her hurt.”
    There was a note of uncertainty in Peter’s voice. “But?” Catherine asked, telling him to hold nothing back.
    “But … I don’t think he’s told her everything. O’Connell is trying to put together a production company. He needs money—a great deal of it. So far there are no takers.”
    “You think he’ll ask Jennifer?”
    “Why not? She’s his wife.”
    “Oh good God, is that what this whirlwind romance is all about?”
    “I sure as hell hope not. And if it is, I could easily be persuaded to break his neck.”
    They sat together quietly. Catherine gathered up the courage to say what it was that had been bothering both of them. “There must have been a thousand interesting, exciting, vivacious, stunning women at Cannes, most of whom would have hopped into Padraig O’Connell’s Ferrari in an instant.”
    “Just the Ferrari?” Barnes asked facetiously.
    “Well, bounced through the Ferrari on their way into his bed.”
    “And you’re wondering why, out of that whole ocean of silicone and pulchritude, the world’s most rakish actor decided on Jennifer.”
    “Is it awful for me to think that way? I mean, Jennifer is wonderful. She has qualities that—”
    “That don’t pop out of the top of her dress. If Padraig O’Connell were a saint or a scholar, then Jennifer might well be his first choice. But it’s not awful for you to wonder why he made such a strong and successful play for your sister. It’s just common sense. I mean no disrespect to either you or Jennifer
when I say that I believe you would have been a far more credible target.”
    “I was available,” Catherine said. “I saw him decide on the gangplank with Jennifer at the top.”
    “Don’t you think he’s smart enough to know that you wouldn’t be impressed with his leprechaun’s wit? You handle lines like his all the time. He’d never get out of the batter’s box. O’Connell is an artist, so he knows the first rule of seduction: Always take someone who wants to be taken.”
    “Jennifer is not that foolish,” Catherine said.
    “Not foolish. But she is that vulnerable.”
    There was another long pause, again interrupted by Catherine. “If he signs an agreement, then it’s just Jennifer’s personal money that’s at risk. And I’d bet every penny of it