Page 42 of Sinful Desires

“Anaffair?” She blurted out a bawdy laugh I imagined was enhanced by the amount of champagne she’d consumed. “Like I said… firecracker. No man could tame her. She picked the wrong guy, I guess, but she got plenty out of it in the end. The idiot didn’t have her sign a prenup, so she was taken care of either way.” Again, she held a finger to her lips, looking back and forth like she was sharing a secret. “Considering the fact that you’re here, I assume there’s no bad blood.”

She laughed again, placing a hand on my arm. I understood that touch. She was hoping her husband would look the other way yet again. “Come to think of it, we’ve met before. You were living with her mother, barely more than a baby. Of course, I swore to keep you a secret.”

I could only stare in blank confusion. “Leila never told youanything, did she?” she asked with a giggle. “She wouldn’t have wanted to tell you about her schemes back when we were young, hot and hustling. She never did find the right time to dump you on him. She figured Magnus wouldn’t want anything to do with a child who wasn’t his, so she kept coming up with reasons to postpone telling him about you. After he divorced her and she had already run through a chunk of the settlement, sheconsidered using you to appeal to him to take her back and give you a stable life. The single mother angle, you know? She wanted to give you the best of everything. I know she did.”

Her nails bit into me through my shirt sleeve and jacket. “But it was too late for that. He had moved on. I only wish Leila had stuck around instead of running away, but I guess she closed and locked the door on this life when he confronted her at that party and called her out. From what I heard, she left the country not long after.”

I was almost grateful for this nameless woman’s claws in my arm. They may have been all that tethered me to the ground. My throat had gone dry, but I croaked, “What you’re telling me is my mother was married to Magnus, and they divorced aftershehad an affair. All the while, he had no idea I existed. By the time Mom decided to use me in a last-ditch effort to get him back, he was already with Evelyn and she never got the chance.”

“That’s the long and short of it,” she concluded with a sigh. “We all do what we have to do.”

“Excuse me.” I barely got the words out. I hardly heard them, the screaming in my head louder than the music, the chatter, all of it. The room spun when a sick, cold sweat coated the back of my neck.

The envelope.

The note.

Everything I thought I knew was a lie.

To hell with propriety. I damn near knocked a handful of women to the floor as I cut through them, almost running for our table.Please, don’t let her have found it. Please, please. Let it be sitting there.It had to be there.

I launched myself at the chair and pulled it away from the table, only to find it empty. No. No, it couldn’t be. I checked every chair, my head on a swivel once I found them empty. Where was Evelyn? Where was Magnus?

Where was Aria?

If I couldn’t find Evelyn or Magnus, I had to get to her before they did. Had to explain what now seemed inexplicable. That woman—whoever she was—had no reason to lie. My mother, on the other hand, had lied to me all my life. She might even have talked herself into believing her lies over the years.

And Aria’s heart would be crushed under the weight of it all.

I almost missed Noah and Lucian attempting to get my attention but pulled up short before barking, “Have you seen Aria? It’s important.”

Noah’s brow creased in concern. “I just saw her leaving the ballroom as we were coming in.”

Fuck. Had she been crying? There was no time to ask. I jogged toward the double doors leading out of the room, where handfuls of guests chatted and networked in the hall. A series of smaller rooms sat across from the ballroom, all of them dark and empty, with the lobby further down the hall bustled with even more guests.

I spotted a flash of sapphire blue silk and followed it, weaving through the crowd and catching Aria before she could escape to the ladies’ room up ahead. She turned and smiled to find me holding her wrist, telling me she didn’t know yet. A small miracle. “I need to talk to you. Immediately,” I murmured, eyeing one of the empty rooms nearby. “It’s an emergency.”

“Oh, my God.” Her face paled. “Mom? Dad? Is there?—”

“They’re fine.” Not true. By now, nothing was fine. Without another word, I pulled her into the closest room, almost dragging her away from the open door to avoid being overheard.

“What’s wrong?” she asked once we stopped. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I may have.” What was I supposed to say? Whatever it was, I had to say it fast. The clock was ticking. “One of Mom’sold friends. She told me… Aria, she told me something I didn’t know. I swear, I didn’t know.”

Those eyes. So blue and trusting were gazing up at me. I was about to drain the light from them. No one could blame me for taking one more moment to memorize how she looked a heartbeat before everything fell to pieces.

I took her face in my hands, fighting to breathe as I drew her closer. “I made a mistake.”

Darkness fell over us when someone stepped into the doorway. I turned to find a familiar figure silhouetted against the light from the hall. “That is a serious fucking understatement.”

Aria jumped away from me like I was on fire. “Dad!” she gasped. “What are you?—”

“Get away from her.” Magnus took one menacing step after another into the room, his attention trained squarely on me. “Aria, you should go.”

He knew. Of course, he knew. I was too late. “Let me explain,” I urged to no avail. He merely sneered.

“You fucking snake,” he grunted out. “I welcomed you into my home. Encouraged my family and friends to accept you, knowing you came from a lying, deceitful woman who was never anything but misery to anyone who cared for her. Did you think you had me fooled?”

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