Page 21 of The Rancher's Unloved Wife

How do I prove to him I'm on his side?

The meeting was adjourned without Summerine finding any answer to her questions, but she did her best to hide her unease as she and Billie headed down to wait for their respective rides outside the sanctuary.

Billie suddenly nudged her side and gestured for Summerie to come close. "That's Heaven Gaines," she whispered under her breath.

Summerine followed Billie's line of sight. "Am I supposed to know her?" The other woman Billie was referring to was standing on the opposite side of the road. She wasastoundinglybeautiful, andoh...

Billie clucked her tongue. "You saw it, too, didn't you?"

Summerine gave her new friend a wide-eyed nod. The other woman had noticeably paled at the sight of Aryan Hale driving past her, and equally obvious was the hardened expression on the billionaire's face upon noticing her presence.

"He hates Heaven's guts for some reason," Billie confided, "but he's letting her stay out of respect for Devon's wife Harry, who personally vouched for her."

Summerine was incredulous. "How do you evenknowthese things?"

"Because everyone thinks I'm a kid," Billie answered cheekily, "and so no one really watches their word around me."

"I'll consider myself duly warned."

Billie rolled her eyes. "Like you have something to hide about your perfect marriage. I was at another meeting as Logan's proxy, and your husband happened to be seated next to me when I heard him answer his phone."

Summerine struggled not to laugh at the way Billie perfectly imitated the way her husband would reach for his phone. She couldn't put it in words either, but the way Ryu moved was akin to a nocturnal predator on the hunt—-

"Hello, darling," she heard Billie then say.

And just like that, Summerine suddenly felt she was being hunted by her own stupidity.

Billie looked at her teasingly. "Do you call him'darling',too?"

Emergencies

SUMMERINE STRUGGLEDto make sense of her feelings as Andrew drove them back to Evergreen.

Her husband not only led a double life as a criminal.

But he was also guilty of adultery.

And when she caught Andrew glancing at her as he texted something on his phone—-

She finally understood why her chest felt inexplicably tight, and her heart seemed to have turned into stone.

"Are you texting my husband?"

Andrew hurriedly pocketed his phone at her words. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Harcourt."

"For texting my husband?"

"For texting during work hours. It won't happen again."

"Texting during work hours doesn't count if you're texting my husband."

"I know—-I mean,no," the older man hastily corrected himself. "I am not texting your husband, Mrs. Harcourt."

"Will you show me your phone then?"

Andrew had the grace to flush when he realized how neatly Summerine had him trapped in a corner.

"Andrew?"

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