Page 13 of Bitter Confessions

When he stared at her, arms crossed, she copied him.

“What does Guy have to do with anything? I’ll never see him again.”

“No, you won’t,” he agreed. “But he isn’t the only one. There’s Matthew, Lincoln, Preston, and Julius, to name a few.”

She blinked. “What about them?”

“They danced attendance on you at Maximus’s funeral. They fetched you drinks, handed you tissues, and you were seen with Julius the following day.”

Jasmine was having trouble keeping up with this odd line of questioning. Those hellish weeks after her dad died were a blur of grief and loneliness. “Julius showed up at my apartment the day after the funeral to see if I was okay. I didn’t invite him in, because my place was a mess. I suggested we go out for coffee. How was I supposed to know there were paparazzi hanging around? It turned out to be good press for him, since it deflected from his messy divorce, but it was hell for me. The speculation that I wanted to be a politician’s wife...” She shuddered. “He apologized for the circus that followed.”

“Which is why you retreated to Tuxedo Park, where you had dinner with Matthew later that week.”

“His estate is five minutes away, and he called to...” She narrowed her eyes. “I thought you didn’t have access to Tuxedo Park.”

“Things changed once Maximus died.”

Had a member of her security team defected after her father passed, or had one of the local guards become a snitch? The fact her whereabouts could be passed on to anyone willing to pay the price sent a chill down Jasmine’s spine. If her former security coordinator, Sunny, suspected any of her bodyguards could be bought, she would have dismissed them immediately. How did Roth react when the snitch reported that she’d disappeared, only for him to discover her in Colorado? How different would things be if she hadn’t made that impulsive trip to visit Kaia?

“You went to a high-profile charity event with Lincoln,” Roth said, drawing her pensive gaze back to him. “And you and Preston made headlines when you took a wild ride through the city.”

“What...? Oh! That was, like, three years ago!”

“Two.”

She shrugged and missed the muscle that flexed in his cheek. “I was meeting Dad and Preston was there. He had this brand new, flashy orange McLaren. He asked me to come for a ride.” Her mouth curved into a fond smile at the memory of his boyish excitement. “It was a beautiful day, so Preston had the top down. He wanted to push it to the limit, which got him a ticket. I don’t know how the press got those photos or why they bothered to publish them.”

“His company just went public, and he was engaged to some royal,” Roth reminded her in a clipped tone.

“That’s right. Whatever happened with that?”

He glowered at her. “What about the charity event with Lincoln?”

She gave a dismissive wave. “He just filed for divorce and was having trouble finding a date who wouldn’t get the wrong idea. Dad was attending since he was one of the major donors and when he heard about Lincoln’s dilemma, he used that to pressure me to go. I wouldn’t have done such a public event for anyone else, but Lincoln’s such a sweet guy.”

There was a pregnant pause before Roth said, “You expect me to believe all these instances where you were photographed with these men were spontaneous and platonic?”

“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes. What else would they be? We’ve known each other all our lives.”

“They’ve never seen you as a friend.”

Her brows came together. “Of course they do.”

“They didn’t show up to your father’s funeral out of a sense of duty. They showed up for you.” When she opened her mouth to argue, he asked, “The night we met, why did you introduce me to them?”

That gave her pause. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Why, Jasmine?”

“They were the most likely to give you a chance.”

“Not me—you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“They have a soft spot for you, and it’s not because you grew up together. If you weren’t the one doing the introductions, they would have walked away like everyone else. They stayed put, risking their parents’ wrath, for you.”

“Are you crazy? No one wanted me! I’m the illegitimate black sheep. I was lucky Ford offered?—”

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