Page 68 of The Roman's Woman (A Singular Obsession)

He put his hands down and stared at her. “I can’t do that Sophia. I’ll lose my job! I was just tenured.”

“You got tenure based on a lie. They gave it to you based on your amazing research paper, the one that you stole!”

Richard rose and came towards her, his hands up. “Only you know that. Jorge was so secretive about his work. The rest of our colleagues have no idea what he was doing towards the end. And I did help him with a lot of it. He didn’t even finish. Once he was gone, it was only natural that I take over. My contribution was significant, too! He would have wanted me to have it.”

Sophia laughed hoarsely. “You’re kidding, right? He would never have wanted someone else to steal his thunder. And what happened to your own project? The one onethics?” she asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“I am still working on that,” he said. “But it wasn’t ready and the tenure issue came up quickly when your father passed away and Aaron Spitz took early retirement.”

By now he was pacing around the room, wringing his hands and looking at her with a wild light in his eye. “The department wanted to keep me on, but there was another candidate with equal seniority—that obnoxious Leonard Cox. You remember him right? From the faculty dinner?”

Her answer wasn’t important, and he kept right on going with his justification. “I needed an edge on Cox, and your father’s research provided it. I never dreamed it would overshadow my own work the way it did, or that it would be the reason they gave me tenure. It just happened. But Sophia, darling, after all that I went through with your father, don’t you think he would have wanted things to work out this way? I am his spiritual heir. He said as much several times.”

“You’re not listening,” Sophia said with a slow shake of her head. She took a deep breath and tried to come up with a reason he would understand.

“You have to come clean about what you did now before you permanently damage your career. Sooner or later, someone is going to find out. You can’t complete a study like my father’s without leaving a paper trail. Somewhere out there is evidence that he did it, not you. You can’t ignore that.”

Richard seemed to crumble in front of her. His face fell, and he stared at her with bright wounded eyes. “No, believe me, I checked. But if somewhere down the road someone finds something suspicious, I can explain it away…as long as you back me up.”

Her mouth dropped open in shock. “You expect me to lie for you?”

“What I want—no, what I need—is your loyalty, like when we were together. If you could just be like that again, when I had your unequivocal support everything would be fine.”

The truth slammed into her like a brick. “Oh, my God! That’s why you wanted to get back together. You knew I would eventually find out about this. It wasn’t about your feelings for me. All that noise about that two of us belonging together, finally meeting your parents, it was bullshit. You just wanted was to make sure that I would keep my mouth shut!”

“No! That’s not it! I sincerely believe we are meant to be together. It’s what your father would have wanted,” he said frantically putting his arms around her and trying to pull her to him.

Utterly disgusted, she pushed him away. Breathing heavily, she stared at him. “That is not going to happen.”

“Why not?”

She laughed shortly. “Well, for one, I am in love with another man. But even if I wasn’t, our relationship is over. It has been for a long time.”

Richard made a face. “The Italian? Are you serious? He’s nothing but a spoiled playboy! No, he’s worse! Don’t you know about all the terrible things that man has done to his wife? It’s all over the Internet. All you have to do is Google him!”

She held up a hand. “Gio is a good person. The only thing wrong with him is his ex-wife. She’s a deranged slut whose been smearing him in the press for her own ends. Seriously, she’s a mess. Although right now I’m not exactly in a position to throw stones when it comes to exes,” she added pointedly before standing up straight. “I’m done arguing about this. You have until Monday to speak to the dean.”

Richard’s hands fell down to his sides. The manic look in his eyes dulled and his expression closed up. “If that’s what you want,” he said slowly.

“It is.”

“All right then. But can I ask you for one favor?”

Sophia’s head drew back. “What is it?” she asked suspiciously.

“I want you to take a few days to think about this—really think about it. Consider what I did for your father and what he wanted for me, forus. And then decide if asking me to sacrifice my career and reputation is whatyou want.”

“I’m not going to change my mind.”

“I understand. But please do it anyway.”

Sophia wrapped her arms around herself. “I will, but I’m not making any promises.”

He nodded. “Good, that’s good. Um…do you want to stay for dinner?”

Unbelievable. “No, I can’t,” she said slowly. “Gio is waiting for me.”

“Oh, of course.”

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