Page 223 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

‘You never should have had to.’ Ramon’s mouth pinched. ‘And was it really a lie? Pain isn’t always physical...it can be emotional too.’

Elodie winced. ‘I think he genuinely thought we could make it work. He wasn’t violent. He just wanted me to be something I wasn’t. I could never please him, but he tried—’

‘I cannot believe you think you have to defend him.’ He breathed in sharply. ‘You did what you needed to do to survive. Anyone would.’

She twisted her hands. Did he not think she was terrible for lying?

‘So when you met someone you did feel turned on by,’ Ramon asked, ‘you couldn’t resist?’

She froze on the edge of the precipice she’d dreaded. As determined as she’d been earlier,thistruth made her very vulnerable. She was terrified of his reaction. That it would lead to herrejection.

‘Elodie?’ Ramon’s brain creaked, struggling to process the weight of what she’d just told him. Why hadn’t he asked? Why had he avoided even thinking about this? Of course her first marriage hadn’t been great, otherwise she’d have stayed with the guy. Of course she’d run out on him when she’d met someone she’d actuallywanted.

‘Thatiswhat happened, isn’t it?’ he prompted.

She said nothing. She wasn’t just reluctant to reply, she was basically paralysed.

He moved towards her, urgency driving him as an outrageous suspicion hit. An impossibility. But now he remembered that time in her escape room when she’d breathlessly questioned what he was doing when he’d dropped to his knees. He’d thought she was acting it up, but maybe she’d really not known. Maybe she’d really not had a man do that before.

Not possible. Just not possible.

‘You fell for another man, realised what you’d been missing out on, left Callum for him—no?’ Ramon pressed, really wanting that to be right.

She stared at her locked hands again.

‘Whendid you meet the other man?’ he growled.

Her head turned from him. ‘Callum could accept that we weren’t intimate in private, but he insisted I show him affection in public. He insisted on more and more—like how I dressed and what I said and stuff. Eventually I told him I wanted out. He resisted that idea. I thought my only choice was to run.’ She cleared her throat. ‘They tried to make me come home. Dad was furious. Callum went kind of crazy. I got desperate. I figured he’d stop coming after me if I was a complete...’ She spread her hands, then knotted her fingers together again. ‘If I was with other guys it would put him off.’

Ramon stared at her fixedly. So she’d become a party girl to push away her possessive husband. All those photos of her dancing with all those guys had been a performance. And she still hadn’t actually answered him properly. Had thereeverbeen a guy she’d actuallywanted?

‘How many men have you slept with?’ he asked bluntly.

She went rigid. ‘That’s irrelevant.’

‘I disagree.’ It wasn’t the number that concerned him, rather her ability to answer. Honestly. ‘What’s your body count?’

‘Define body count.’ She glared at him angrily. ‘Because right now I’m very close to murdering you.’

The most preposterous notion had taken hold of Ramon only he was suddenly certain it wasn’t that far-fetched at all. ‘I’m not talking a few kisses on a nightclub floor. I want to know exactly how many men you’ve taken to bed.’

‘Well, you can want all you like, I’m not telling.’

Right. He suddenly felt murderous himself. ‘Would it really kill you to be completely honest with me? Just this once?’

‘Why does it matter so much?’ She whitened. ‘Will you even believe me if I even tell you? If I admit to the sanctimonious, perfect Ramon Fernandez himself that I’ve only slept with my ex-husband and the current one?’ She stepped forward. ‘That’s right,’ she spat. ‘Two. You and him.’ She dragged in a broken breath and pushed back on him in true Elodie style. ‘How many women have you slept with?’

This wasn’t about him. He’d never hidden the truth so deliberately. ‘So your supposed infidelity, thereasonfor your divorce—?’

‘You don’t have to go all the way to be unfaithful,’ she snapped. ‘Iwasunfaithful.’

No. She’d enacted an escape plan. Because her first husband had resisted her leaving and her father had pressured her into returning, she’d acted out. But it had been an act. She hadn’t cheated at all.

He gaped at her—so incredibly hurt and he didn’t know why. She reallywasinto role-play. He just had it all back to front.

‘You engineered everything so they’d think poorly of you. So others would judge you. All your wild partying ways and supposed promiscuity, all those photos—a new partner every night, dancing with somanydifferent men.’ Bitterness filled him. This made sense now. This made total sense. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t realise sooner.’

‘How could you have?’

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