Page 20 of The Fiancé (Close Quarters 4)

“I haven’t the faintest clue.”

“Well, if your parents never talked about the birds and the bees with you, that’snotmy problem.” She picks up speed, walking ahead of me toward the elevator. I hold back, enjoying the way her dress swishes against the back of her thighs in a way that has my pants feeling suddenly tight.

Add that to the growing list of mental images I need to ignore for the next however many days...

Ihaveto get my head into the game, if I have any chance at all of salvaging this deal and my reputation. Not to mention my relationship with my brother. I can’t let anything distract me from my goals...not even Ava.

CHAPTER NINE

Ava

ANDITHOUGHTmyfamily was dysfunctional.

This dinner is awful. Unbearable. Seriously, secret service agents should film this as inspiration for torture techniques.

I’m sitting at the dinner table, between Daniel and his sister-in-law, Lily. On the other side sits Daniel’s mother, an older family friend named Enzo, and Marc. The silence is so thick I’m worried it might choke me if I open my mouth. The only thing that breaks the oppressive lack of sound is the clack of cutlery against porcelain.

But nobody is actually eating. We’re simply pushing vegetables and pieces of tender meat in a red sauce around our plates. Awkwardness is a real appetite killer, it turns out.

Lily is sweet and she attempts to make conversation with me. She’s even more beautiful in person, without Photoshop smoothing away the little bits of her that make her unique, like the cluster of freckles on her nose and the mole on the side of her neck. I know her—like most do—from when she was crowned Miss Australia five years ago.

But I can feel her eyes constantly darting across the table to where her husband sits, a stormy expression on his face. We’ve all been summoned here by Mrs. Moretti, but to what end? I’m itching to get out.

“We need to talk about this,” Daniel says eventually, and there’s an unnerving stillness around the table.

“There’s nothing to say.” Marc pushes back roughly on his chair and stalks out of the room.

A second later, Daniel follows him. “This whole thing is ludicrous. I’m your brother for Chrissake.”

“And?”

“I have a fiancée,” he says, controlling his voice. “Why would I screw around when I have such a beautiful woman already in my bed?”

I feel my face grow hot, and thankfully their voices start to fade as they enter the next room. I’m questioning everything right now—maybe this whole deal was a bad idea. Maybe I should have come out of that supply closet with my head held high, betting that my catering boss wouldn’t have fired me.

“I know what I saw.” Marc’s tone is frosty but only snatches of conversation float into the dining room. “A photo...kissing.”

I frown. Daniel was so convincing about not being involved with Lily, but there’s a photo? This is news to me, and it hits me like a punch in the gut. I believed him. That first night, when I put my foot in my mouth so hard I almost kicked my own brain out the back of my head, he told me the rumours were false and I believed him.

I turn to Lily, who sits with her shoulders back and her head high, but a tear slides down the side of her cheek.

“We didn’t do it,” she says, her voice wobbling. “I don’t know what Marc thinks he saw.”

Across the table, Mrs. Moretti watches Lily. Her expression is impossible to read, but there’s something dark in her eyes. Something like hurt. Based on what Daniel told me about their family’s past, maybe she’s inclined to believe people are capable of anything. The older gentleman with salt-and-pepper hair suggests coffee and coaxes her out of her chair, leaving me alone with Lily.

“I’m sorry you have to see all this,” she says, swiping a tear with the back of her hand. A huge diamond glitters on her finger, matching a strand of smaller stones dangling gracefully from her wrist. “It’s not how I would want to welcome anyone into this family.”

“It’s not your fault,” I reply automatically.

“I know. But try convincing them.” She nods in the direction of where Mrs. Moretti and Enzo have disappeared into the kitchen. “I can’t blame her for taking her son’s side, but... I’ve known them forever. Since I was a little kid. Our parents were friends and I used to come here to play. She helped me with skinned knees and told the boys off if they were being too rough. Sheknowsme.”

My heart squeezes for this poor woman and what she’s going through. Instinctively I want to believe her, as I did Daniel. “Then what photo is he talking about?”

“That’s the thing, I have no idea.” Lily shakes her head. “He won’t show it to me. Hell, he won’t even talk to me now. The only reason he came tonight was because his mother lied about who was coming. Part of me wonders if she was pushing Marc’s buttons so he’d flip out and divorce me.”

“Do you really think that?”

“No, I guess not. Before all this happened, I was close with her. She loves her sons more than anything.” She presses her fingertips to her cheeks. “But the whole world thinks I’m a cheating whore, so it’s easy to become paranoid.”

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