Page 28 of Billionaire Corruption

“Really?”She folded her arms and looked at me, rapt with attention. I liked her, she was friendly and open. Her hair, which was cut into a funky short style and bleached white blonde, gave her an edgy, confident look.

I gave her the basic story without any of the romantic details.

“And then you met up again here? Talk about fate! Now you are on the team investigating him?”

“I know! I should really withdraw,” I said.

“It’s not like you really know him or anything, right?” she winked at me.

“No…” I said.

“Anyway, it was nice to meet you,” she said, squeezing my arm.

She left and her scent of expensive perfume lingered after her.

I realized that she was right. I didn’t know him, at all, in fact.

Chapter 12

Paul

When Gill called me for squash, I rather looked forward to getting out of the office and thinking about something else for a while. I met him at a private health club, and we spent over an hour chasing each other around the court. He had indeed improved on his game and for the first time ever, I was unable to beat him.

This did not help improve my mood at all.

Afterwards, mopping our faces with towels and drinking water, he asked me if everything was all right.

“Of course.”

“You seemed distracted,” he said.

“Some stuff going on at work,” I said, evading his questions.

“I heard Irina met with that girlfriend of yours, what’s her name again?”

I was about to pick up my bag and head off to the showers. Now I dropped the bag to face him.

“What girlfriend?”

“That young thing we met the other day, what was her name again?”

“Grace?”

“Yeah, that’s it!” Gill said. “Looks cute, by the way. You should bring her over, we could grab a bite to eat.”

“Hang on,” I wanted to get clarity on what had happened exactly.

“Irina and Grace met up?”

“They had lunch apparently,” Gill said, and picking up on my mood, asked, “That a problem?”

“Not at all, not at all!” I grinned and slapped his back to show him the conversation was over.

But as soon as I was in the car, I texted Grace.

Did you have lunch with Gill’s girlfriend, Irina?

It was a few hours before she responded.

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