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“Can’t a man stay home for the morning so he can spend time with his lovely wife?” He flashed her a smile and she wanted to slap it off his face.
Suspicion rose within her. What did he want? What the hell was he up to now? “You never want to spend time with me.”
“I’m trying to remedy that.” He leaned against the kitchen counter and she dropped her gaze back to her phone, scrolling through the pictures with that redheaded skank in them. “What are you looking at?”
“An article about the fashion gala last night.” She kept her voice perfectly nonchalant. “Looking at all the photos. Saw a few that were very interesting.”
“Oh yeah?” He didn’t sound interested whatsoever as he turned away from her to tend to his bagel.
“Definitely. In fact, look at this.”
She went to him, thrusting the phone in front of his face, and he glanced down quickly, doing a double take when he realized who was in the picture. He grabbed the phone from her, staring at the screen. “Well, no shit.”
“Don’t you ‘no shit’ me!” She smacked him on the arm, earning a loud ow from her husband. “What is that bitch doing with him?”
“How am I supposed to know?” Paul rubbed his arm, his bagel forgotten. “Though I did run into her at a restaurant about a month ago and I think she was there, with that guy. Well, and with his kid.”
“What restaurant? When? Why didn’t you tell me you saw her?” Shit, the man was going to drive her crazy with his secret-keeping.
And he did it on purpose, as if he wanted to make her crazy.
It was working.
“I was at a business dinner meeting, I can’t even remember with who.” He averted his gaze, as he was wont to do when he lied. The bastard. “I know she was with a little kid because I saw her walk him to the bathroom. And I’m almost positive she was with that guy in the picture, plus a few other people.” Paul snapped his fingers, as he had a major realization. “I bet she’s his nanny.”
“What’s he doing taking his nanny to a gala? Is he that hard up for a date?” she sneered, snatching the phone out of her husband’s hand so she could stare at the picture yet again.
If she could, she would toss her phone and watch it shatter into a million pieces on the costly Italian tiled floor. But she wasn’t about to destroy her very expensive phone over a stupid whore bitch man-stealer.
“I guess she can’t help herself. Maybe she finds handsome fathers attractive. Maybe he seduced her.” Paul shrugged.
“You son of a bitch.” Carolyn punched him in the arm again, disgusted by his observation. Leaving the kitchen, ignoring Paul’s shouted complaints, she scrolled through the page of pictures again, locating a contact number in the sidebar of the webpage.
Carolyn tapped it, waiting for her phone to process the call. “Hello? Yes, I just saw the pictures you have on your site of Matteo Renaldi and his mystery date? Well, I might have some very interesting information for you regarding the woman he took with him last night…”
“What is this?”
Paige glanced up from the magazine she was looking at to find Matteo standing over her, a trashy tabloid newspaper clutched in his hand. She frowned. When had he come home? It was still late afternoon, Matty was peacefully playing in his room while she sat on the couch and flipped through a magazine for a bit. “What is what?”
“This…filth in this article.” He held it out to her and she took it from him, her eyes widening when she saw the headline.
Renaldi’s Nanny Girlfriend’s Secret Past!
Her heart dropped to her toes and she glanced up at Matteo again, saw that his jaw was clenched, his eyes dark and full of fury. “I—I don’t know what this is.”
He flicked his chin at the newspaper in her hands. “Read it.”
She did so, her eyes skimming the article. It went on about her being Matteo’s new love, a mystery woman he refused to discuss when they’d been at the gala two nights ago.
Her frown deepened. So had the media asked about her and he refused to discuss her? That hurt more than she cared to admit.
The article went on to talk about how a source had contacted them and let them in on her secret past. That she had been involved in a heated affair with her previous employer and their involvement was the reason she’d been fired. The last paragraph alluded to the fact that she appeared to be repeating history.
God. She swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat. She thought she might throw up.
“Is it true?” Matteo’s growling voice broke through her thoughts.
