Page 13 of The Sin

Not like this.

His windbreaker was hanging on the coat hook by the front entrance. A quick search yielded his key fob in an inner pocket.

Doubt riddled me as I used the small silver key to unlock the door to his study. If I did this, it could not be undone.

A small part of me wished I could wind back time, not hide inside that box on Roman’s truck. A small part of me could so easily seethatlife, me and Roman sliding into a safe, steady marriage. I was attracted to him, and I strongly suspected he wasn’t completely immune to me. The reason his betrayal had cut me to the core was because I’d started falling for him. I could see a time where we could have been happy—or perhaps content.

But I had hid inside that box and I couldn’t un-see the Outerlanders. I couldn’t un-know what I now knew.

I’d started down this path and I had to follow it through to the end, no matter where it led.

The stack of books on the bookshelf looked exactly as I’d last left them. Using the desk chair to help me reach the higher shelves, I slid out the thick, hardcover A4 notebook with the incredibly talented drawings. Roman’s artist. Amelia? I didn’t know. There was so much I didn’t know about Roman—and never would.

I sat cross-legged on the floor, set the notepad down in front of me and slowly turned the pages. The lead drawings were stark, a dark window into a rotten, dying world and yet there was a beauty in the art, if not the subject.

I turned the page to the portrait of a younger Roman, a man with a half-smile that reached his eyes. A man not yet touched by the hardness that now masked his features. A pang of…something, hit me in the chest. Not jealousy. Not envy that what this artist had captured on the page was so elusive to me in real life.

I couldn’t define the grip of pain in the region of my heart, but I felt it with every inch of my being.

The water in the bathroom turned off and I sucked in a long, slow breath to steady my nerves.

If I scrambled like a bat out of hell, there was still time to abort this mad mission.

Instead I took another calming breath and turned more pages until I reached the square hole cut into the bottom half of the notebook.

I removed the fold of papers and the photographs and spread them out on the floor, was just unfolding Miriam Edgar’s admission document when I sensed Roman’s presence.

Sure enough, my gaze flicked to the doorway and found him caught there, rigid still.

The shock didn’t last more than a couple of seconds, then his expression iced.

“I offered for you, and you accepted. That makes you my wife.” He took one step into the room. “That makes you my responsibility.”

I swallowed with difficulty as I watched his next step, so measured, so restrained.

“That does not, however, invite you into every intimate aspect of my life,” he said in a cold voice.

“I know, and I’m sorry.” As he neared, I had to crane my neck back to hold his gaze. “I shouldn’t have breached your privacy, but I was curious, and I did.”

I picked up the photos of Councilman Thorpe, one with the olive-skinned beauty wrapped in his arms, another with a stunning brunette. “You took these. Or appropriated them from someone, from somewhere… This is incriminating evidence of adultery against Councilman Thorpe. And this…”

I placed a hand over the document. “The admission form of Miriam Edgar to the Center for Reform and Rehabilitation. Julian signed it. From what I’ve gathered, he’s the one who admitted her. She was incarcerated for six weeks, at his request, and it was never made public. That wouldn’t look good for the councilman, would it? Incriminating evidence.”

Roman hunched down before me and took the photos from me. Then the admission document. Then he collected the A4 notepad and straightened, his movements precise and careful, almost mechanical. “What, exactly, are you accusing me of?”

“I’m not accusing you of anything.” I pushed to my feet and folded my arms. “I broke into your study a while ago. I crossed a line that cannot be uncrossed and I really am sorry. That’s why I’m telling you what I did, and showing you what I found.”

“And what is it you think you’ve found?”

I had my suspicions. Roman was ambitious and once he was promoted to senior Warden, he needed the council’s vote if he wanted to be elected to High Warden. He had enough material here to blackmail two councilmen. And he had a couple of years before the next election to gather evidence against the other council members. That was one way to ensure their vote.

I said nothing of this to Roman. “I don’t know and I don’t care.”

“You’ve gone to a lot of trouble for someone who doesn’t care.”

“I care about the truth, Roman, and when I said I couldn’t believe you to give me the full truth earlier, I wasn’t judging you. I was just stating facts.”

His brows arrowed. “I never realized your opinion of me was so low.”

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