Page 7 of A Linton Scandal

“I can’t explain it. It’s like this is my last chance to have a family of my own. To have someone who loves me, and someone I could love unconditionally who won’t—”betray me,I silently finished to myself.

“Jul.”

I cringed at the look of pity in her eyes. I quickly straightened and hopped off the stool I sat on. Sophie knew nothing about what happened between me and Daniel, but I always felt she had an idea. “I’m going to the bathroom. Be right back.”

Feeling her eyes on my back. I knew she was waiting for me to tell her what happened between Daniel and me two years ago, but I wouldn’t. I had no interest in walking down memory lane. Especially with the prospect of being a mother waiting for me in the future.

Daniel was my past, and this baby would be my future.

My Baby

Mihai

The drive to where the woman lived was almost an hour away from my work. During that time, I read over the information that Nao had gotten about her. Her picture wasn’t the most recent, which of course Nao noted in his report, he’d pointed out that she’d lost some weight and had changed her lifestyle over the last year.

She had pleasant features with wide brown eyes, a button nose and soft kissable looking lips that maintained a pink hue even without makeup. And while it seemed like nine times out of ten her hair had been covered in the pictures; she had a lot of it.

Her caramel-colored skin had a healthy glow, and in most of her pictures she either had a somber expression or what looked to be a reluctant smile. A few times I’d caught myself simply staring at her picture wondering what had made her offer up even that small smile, and then I’d shake my head because it didn’t matter what had made her smile in that way.

All that mattered was that she was my prey, and once I met her, I’d find out if she was in on the plot or simply unlucky. With that determination I set the picture of her aside and started looking at her resume.

“She’s a chocolatier?” I asked, though it was obvious from her information in my lap. My brow crinkled, as I continued to read. She went to Auguste Escoffier for culinary arts, after that she attended Ecole School of Chocolate in Canada before she left for Europe and did an internship in France and then Belgium. Once she’d returned to the states, she’d worked in a few restaurants to design special pieces for them for display. Until she came here and teamed up with a friend named Sophie Kipley to run a restaurant. As my eyes continued to skim, I stopped on one sentence.

“She has a YouTube channel?”

Nao nodded from the front seat. “Yes, and she has quite a following. She works along with Mrs. and Mr. Kilpaldy, they each have their own specialty, but it seems her videos have a high viewership. Apparently, it’s normal to see her video’s trending on their main page.”

“Then why would she have worked with someone to stain my reputation?” I wondered aloud. “It doesn’t add up.”

“Her mother’s family has some financial strain, and it would seem that Ms. Juliette usually provides them with extra income to help out.”

I hummed in acknowledgement of his words. “Well, it doesn’t matter, if she doesn’t want them to suffer she’ll go along with whatever I say.” I hoped she wouldn’t waste my time with unnecessary resistance. For both of us, it would have been better if she didn’t think herself more special than she was.

I had yet to inform my mother and father of her existence. Since for them it would be a disappointment, it was rare that one of the four families had relations with an outsider.

On that thought I closed the file and set it aside, closing my eyes I leaned back. The earlier I dealt with this the better.

Juliette

Sitting at my work table, I squinted my eyes at the latest design that had been commissioned by a major hotel. They were holding an author event, featuring the top authors from a prominent publishing company called Perceptive Illusions Publishing, Inc. Most of their writers had not only earned accolades from the reading world, but two of them were in talks with Netflix for their series. One of those series had won an award, and I had been asked to remake the cover out of chocolate.

Seeing that the cover was a bit too intricate, I’d instead spoken with them about building the centerpiece of the cover. A majestic building of white, that had immediately caught my attention, now I had to decide what flavor I would create and whether or not I would do something known, or create an interesting new taste.

Noah always cracked jokes, that if someone saw my desk they’d think I worked in architecture and not food. He wasn’t wrong, from the tape measurer that hung on the wall to the cutting tools used to build fake replicas. I felt like a carpenter, only my materials would be chocolate and not wood.

The work eased my mind and kept me from feeling anxious about my choice to have the baby. I had yet to tell Noah or Sophie, my final choice. Apart of me felt a bit giddy and wanted to hoard the excitement to myself.

As I was starting to feel hungry, my cell vibrated from where I’d set it on the floor. I usually put it on the floor, so that I would focus and not get caught up in scrolling Tik Tok for an hour.

Glancing down, I saw it was my mom. Sighing, I placed my drawing pencil down and leaned over to pick it up.

Before I could even say hi, my mother spoke first.

“Jul, your sister wants to know if you can bake a cake for her wedding.” My mother sounded excited, and I could hear feminine chatter in the background.

For a second my mind went completely blank.

“What wedding?” I asked once I realized the length of my silence had turned the atmosphere awkward.

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