Page 41 of Be My Traitor

“Listen, Milly. If you want me to, I’ll make an announcement over assembly this morning. I want to shout it out across the rooftops –I love Milly Knight!”

I shushed him as he raised his voice. “Don’t wake Amber. What will she think if she knows you stayed over?”

“Ahhh.” Lucas raised an eyebrow. “See? Therearegood reasons for us to keep our relationship quiet for the time being.”

“Okay. You got me.”

Lucas quickly finished getting ready and we tiptoed downstairs, wanting to make sure Lucas was gone before Amber woke up.

“I’ll see you at work later.” Lucas quickly kissed me and left.

“Who was that, Mummy?” As I shut the front door, I jumped at the voice behind me. I whirled round to see Amber.

“Oh, it was just a delivery.”

Amber frowned. “So, where’s the parcel?”

I mentally kicked myself for raising a child who was so quick witted. I’d always encouraged her to question everything, including me, but it was already starting to backfire at moments like now. I didn’t want her to know Lucas had stayed over until I was a little more secure in our relationship.

I thought fast. “He had the wrong house. He was looking for Uncle Archer. I gave him the right address so Uncle Archer will be able to get his delivery. Now then, little madam, rather than you asking me questions about things which are none of your business, why don’t we go and get you some breakfast? You’ve got a big day at nursery. It’s your trip to the local aquarium, remember? Do you think you’re going to see a shark?”

“Oooh, yes! Sharks!”

That was it. Amber was off, happily babbling away about all the sea creatures she was going to see at the aquarium. They’d been doing a project about the sea at nursery and she was really excited about being able to meet all the fish she’d been singing songs about for weeks.

Once Amber was in her stride, she didn’t really need much input from me other than the occasional grunt and ‘mm-hmm,’ so I was free to process the discussion Lucas and I had had that morning. While it made sense for us to keep our relationship on the downlow for the moment, the second Amber found out about us, it was going to be common knowledge. I knew from painful experience that she couldn’t keep a secret and had long since learned to keep any unflattering opinions or gossip to myself if Amber was within earshot.

While I was going to respect Lucas’s wishes, with Amber around, I wasn’t sure how long that could last.

“Have a good day at the aquarium, sweetie.” I gave Amber a kiss and cuddle before she happily trotted into nursery, waving her shark-shaped lunch box at all her friends. I’d seen it in a Facebook ad a couple of weeks ago and ordered it for her as a surprise. Her face when she saw it was a picture and I could have cried with how happy she was. She was going to have the best day trip ever.

“Be good!” I called after her, but I wasn’t even sure she heard me she was so caught up in talking to one of the nursery teachers about all the fish she was going to see.

“She always is.” Kym, another of the teachers overheard me and smiled reassuringly. “Amber’s a little angel.”

“For you, maybe,” I said. “If I were to take her to the aquarium, I’d spend the day running after her, trying to keep up!”

“The children know to stick together when we go out,” Kym reassured me. “Amber is buddied up with Daisy. They’ll be holding hands the whole time and we have a high adult/child ratio, so she’ll be with one of us at all times. She’ll have a ball.”

“I’m sure she will. Thanks, Kym.”

As I walked away from the nursery, my phone beeped with a text. I pulled it out to see that my father had messaged me.

I have the name of Lucas’s sister. Come and see me after work and I’ll give you all the details x

Hands shaking with excitement, I quickly tapped out a reply.

That’s amazing! I’ll let Lucas know. We’ll come by later x

I couldn’t wipe the grin off my face as I hurried over to Lucas’s office. I wanted to see his face when I told him my father had done what his investigators couldn’t. His door was open and I knocked on it as I walked in. Lucas was tapping away on his computer, but when he looked up to see me, he got up and came to close the door behind me.

He pulled me into his arms and kissed me deeply.

“Wow,” I said when we broke apart. “What was that for?”

“It’s just the effect you have on me.” Lucas shrugged. “You’re going to have to get used to the fact that ever time you walk into my office, I’m going to want to kiss you. In fact, I have a rather large desk and we could…” His voice trailed off as he raised his eyebrows suggestively and nodded his head towards his desk.

“No, we couldn’t. I’ve got class in ten minutes and I need to get ready,” I reminded him. “But I have some news. Dad’s found your sister.”

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