Page 47 of A Linton Scandal

“Dammit, what about you Roman, you know someone?”

Roman ignored his sister in favor of speaking to Levi. “I have an aunt who’s looking to remarry, want me to give her your number?”

“Hey, what about me?” Dacia complained.

Roman shot her a look. “I wouldn’t wish you on my worst enemy.”

Dacia stood up and brushed her hair over her shoulder. “You know what, I don’t have to take this abuse. I’m going to go to the bathroom, hopefully you jerks will have better manners when I get back.” She scooted from behind the table and made her way to leave.

Ms. Pall stood up and quickly went after her. “Wait for me.”

Realizing I also needed to use the bathroom, I asked to be excused and went in the same direction they’d gone. As soon as I drew closer to the wall separating the hallway to the bathroom from the rest of the bar, I could hear Dacia exclaim.

“Enough, Tiffany. I already told you. I don’t have feelings for Mihai, and frankly I’m happy he’s found someone to be with. Especially with how things went wrong with his first wife.”

“How can you say that?” Tiffany said. “If he hadn’t married someone unsuitable for him in the first place. He’d never have ended up in such a situation. That whore didn’t know what she had, and slept around, she even had the audacity to sleep with his brother and have that bastard?—”

“Shut up.”

I flinched at how loud and cold Dacia’s voice sounded. I instinctively took a step back, before recovering and moving forward once more pressing against the wall.

“I knew I shouldn’t have brought you with me. Look, Mihai doesn’t love you and will never love you. No matter how long you hold this candle for him. He’s ignored all of your signs. He’s simply not interested in you.” Dacia’s voice softened. “Listen, I’m telling you this as a friend. Let it go, he’s happy now. And if you truly love him as much as you say you do, you’d give him your blessing and move on. Also, this is the last time I’m going to let you use me to see him.”

I heard the door open followed by the sound of Tiffany begging Dacia to forgive her before the door shut behind them.

After that I tried my best to pretend, I hadn’t heard anything. It wasn’t the news that Tiffany liked Mihai that threw me for a spin. I’d known that since we’d met at the hospital, it was the information about Mihai’s wife. Did she really sleep with Mihai’s brother, and with which one? And why did Mihai take in Nelu if that was the truth?

Deciding I didn’t want to see Tiffany or Dacia, much less be alone with them in the bathroom, I went back to the table with the others and waited for the night to end.

I’d hoped that I’d managed to hide my discomfort, but I should have known that I wasn’t going to be able to hide anything from Mihai, I swear that man had the ability to read minds.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

We sat in the back seat and the privacy window was up. This was a good chance to tell him about what I heard and ask him about it but for some reason I hesitated. Inhaling deeply, I decided to ask despite my inner worries. If we were going to try to make this thing between us real. Keeping secrets wasn’t right.

“When I went to the bathroom, I overheard Dacia and Ms. Pall talking,” I started.

He frowned. “What did they say?”

“Ms. Pall mentioned that your wife—” I paused, pursing my lips together. Even with my resolve there to ask him, I still worried about his reaction.

He shifted around to face me. “Jul, what did she say?”

I turned away from him, that was the only way I could say it all. “She implied that your son isn’t yours but your brother’s.”

The tension in the air climbed and I could feel Mihai’s gaze probing my face, after a minute I finally looked at him. And was surprised to see that he didn’t seem fazed in the least by my words.

“Is that so?” The corners of his lips quirked. “I guess that old rumor is still running around.”

I turned to fully face him. “You knew about it?”

“Of course, I did. It was one of many rumors that were running around after she died.”

“Then why, didn’t you make it clear it wasn’t true?” I asked, confused by how calm he was.

He shrugged. “They also said that’s why I killed her. The rumor is she cheated, and I was willing to ignore it until she slept with my brother. Driven to anger, I pushed her out of the window during the party.” His eyes grew cold.

My stomach tightened. “What?”

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