Page 66 of The Roman's Woman (A Singular Obsession)

There was complete silence on the other end of the line.

“Well? What do you have to say for yourself? And how has no one in that damn department realized you stole my father’s research?”

More silence.

“Richard, so help me God, I’m going to go over there and I’m going to kick your ass into next week if you don’t start talking right now.”

There was the sound of someone taking a fast quick breath. “Yes, come over. That’s exactly what I need you to do. I can explain everything. You’ll understand once I tell you what happened. Come over here to your father’s house. Everything will be clear. Just don’t do anything rash before you hear what I have to say.”

Even angrier now, Sophia fisted her free hand. “There is nothing you can say to explain this away!”

“Yes, there is! But I need to talk to you in person. Will you come?”

Sophia ground her teeth and exhaled slowly. “All right. I’m on my way now. But I’m warning you, Richard. I’m not letting this go.”

“I know that. I’ll be expecting you,” he said in a hollow voice.

Sophia hung up and stormed to her bedroom, pulling off her shorts and t-shirt and taking out jeans and sweater. She started to put them on and then changed her mind.

Her old clothes weren’t going to work for this confrontation. On impulse, she picked out a deep pink bodycon dress. It was part of her new wardrobe—one of the pieces that made her feel empowered. Deciding she could do with a bit of armor, she threw it on over her head. Finally she grabbed a pair of black motorcycle boots and tugged them roughly on her feet.

She was about to run out the door when she remembered Gio. Right now, their conflict was nothing in the face of Richard’s deception. She needed to let him know that he’d been right all along to distrust her ex.

God, he’s going to love that.

Letting Gio tell her, “I told you so” was going to have to wait. First she had to go kick some ass. Grabbing her phone, she typed a brief message to her know-it-all Italian before snatching up her car keys and slamming her apartment door shut behind her.

Chapter 23

Gio should have been exhausted. He’d been up all night, unable to sleep since his argument with Sophia. Instead, he felt strangely buzzed, the lack of rest making him twitchy.

It had taken all his willpower to keep from going over to her apartment last night. One phone call, which had gone unanswered was all he allowed himself. He couldn’t push her right now. She needed time to cool off. To that end, he’d sent her a text at two in the morning before trying to rest. But sleeping alone had been impossible.

The bed felt empty without Sophia in his arms. She belonged there. It was the only thing that made sense. Deep down she knew it too, and he was sure they were going to be fine once they were past this point of contention regarding their exes.

They had to be.

His body needed more convincing. There was a rock in his stomach, a tangible reminder that he'd mishandled the whole thing.

Sophia had a point that he was being unfair. If he was being honest, he knew she had a right to deal with Richard any way she chose. But something inside of him couldn’t accept that.

His strongest instinct was to protect her, and it was telling him to keep her away from that man. Keeping her from hurt or harm was his priority. Those protective feelings had always been there, but after the incident with Lucca they had gone into overdrive.

Intellectually he knew that overstuffed shirt Richard didn’t look like a threat to anyone else. An impartial observer would probably side with Sophia. Gio was being unreasonable about him, but he couldn’t seem to stop—which was disturbing in and of itself. After a lifetime of deliberate and rational behavior, he was acting like a madman. His only justification was this gut feeling that something wasn’t right with his rival.

He spent the rest of the day trying to bury himself in work. It was a tried and true technique that had served him well in the past. Only this time it failed him completely. He kept checking his phone for messages every ten minutes, hoping against hope that Sophia had calmed down enough to speak to him again.

He was contemplating hitting the gym to work out his frustration when he heard the text alert on his phone go off. Snatching it up, he quickly scanned through Sophia’s message.

Gio, I’m sorry things got so heated last night. If it makes you feel any better Richard IS a piece of shit! You’ll never believe what he did. He stole my father’s research! I have to go read him the riot act but after, I’m going to come over so we can talk. I’ll call you as soon as I’m done.

Oddio. He sat there staring at his phone for a long moment, letting the implications of her message sink in. For a second, he was elated. There was no way Richard was going to be able to win Sophia back now. That English idiot had just hit the last nail on his own coffin. However, his relief was short-lived.

The man had committed academic fraud. Was that illegal? Even if it wasn’t, it was unethical. The University would have no choice but to fire him if it got out. And Sophia was going over to confront him on her own.

If Richard had stolen Jorge Márquez’s research and passed it off as his own, what else was he capable of? Cornered rats could be dangerous. Especially now that his transgression had been uncovered.

On impulse, he called downstairs and told Enzo to get him a car, a dark nondescript one.

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