AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll help you,” I said. “And I have an idea that will help both of us.”
“What is it?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You marry me.”
Her mouth gaped open, shock turning her features slack for a few seconds.
“Excuse me?” she sputtered out.
“Not for real,” I added before her eyes popped out of her skull. “We’ll be engaged for a few months, long enough to be believable. Once the good mayor knows you have someone powerful by your side, he’ll back off.”
“Oh.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, not looking happy at all with the suggestion. “Well, I was hoping you would just talk to him.”
I raised an eyebrow at her. That was an unexpectedly naive take. “Talking doesn’t work with men like him. I would just be showing all my hands and giving him everything he needs to fight back. No, that’s not good enough. He needs to believe I’m totally in love with you and ready to fight for you. Of course, this helps me as well.”
“What? How?”
“I have gotten some sort of a reputation for being an asshole to women,” I said. “Normally, I wouldn’t care, but it’s getting to be bad for business. And bad business means I lose money, which doesn’t benefit either of us.”
“So what are you saying?”
“Dating you will give me the story I need,” I continued. “Because it would show me as a man who is so madly in love with a woman that he unintentionally hurt any other woman he dated. The public will eat it up.”
I reached into my drawer and pulled out the contract I intended to give to my supporting actress.
“I know there’s no danger of you falling in love with me, of course,” I added.
Her eyes flared wide open.
“Of course.”
But there was something funny in her voice when she said it.
SEVEN
LISA
You’re making a mistake.
The thought echoed like a threat in my head. For the entire day, it was like every single warning bell was going off in my head, and it had been since the minute I revealed my secret, to be honest. I knew telling him about Violet would be a pivotal moment in our lives.
But now that the fear of losing her to my father had receded, I was starting to get nervous for a different reason.
Nick knew. This would change everything, but I’d already gone past the point of no return.
Even back when I was at the testing center, my hesitation was there. I had a bad feeling in my stomach.
Violet sat beside me, swinging her legs against the seat and holding her school bag in her hands as she asked, “What are we doing here, Mommy?”
“Nothing important, sweetie,” I said. “We’re just taking a little test.”
She nodded. “Is this a school?”
“Not that kind of test. A hospital test.”
She frowned then. “Am I sick? Gregory from the playground always has to take hospital tests, and he’s sick all the time.”
“No, you’re not sick. We’re just….” I didn’t know how to explain it to her. “I guess you could say that we’re just trying to make sure everything is okay.”
