Page 57 of The Sexy Billionaire

“I did. But that was a long time ago.”

“True. Still, he broke your heart that summer.” Her eyes narrow on me.

“We were kids,” I say, but she’s right; he devastated me.

“It took you a long time to date after him.”

It was a dark time.

“I was on the phone with him when Michael attacked me, he’s probably worried,” I tell her.

“You think he recorded it? That would be great to show the judge for the restraining order,” Callie adds, getting lost in her lawyer brain.

“I don’t know, but do you think you could message him and let him know I’m okay?”

“Sure,” she says, opening her phone, and I tell her his social media handle.

“Are you fricken serious, Paige? That’s him?” She looks up at me. I nod. “Dammit, why can’t any of the guys I dated as a teen look like a demigod?” She smiles as she opens the DMs and types out a message to him, letting him know that I’m safe and well, that I’ve lost my phone, and will be in touch when I find it or get a new one. “Wonder what his brother looks like.” Callie grins as she scrolls down his feed until she finds him and clicks on his profile. “Oh man, he’s hot, too. Oh, but he’s married, and they are having a baby. Aw, that’s nice. Wonder if they have any hot single Italian friends to set me up with,” she muses before bursting out laughing. This is what I need to put the terror of the evening behind me, so we launch into a full-scale social media audit to see if either man has any hot friends.

“Thank fuck you’re okay, Paige,” my brother says as we walk into his apartment, and he hugs me tightly. “What the hell happened tonight? You girls were supposed to be looking after her,” he yells at Callie.

She’s about to yell back, except I push myself out of his arms. “How dare you.”

He looks surprised at my venom.

“This is no one’s fault but his. The man dyed his hair. He looked completely different. How would we have known he would be there? How did he know we were there?”

My brother rolls his eyes. “Because you girls posted it everywhere, all over your fucking social media,” he replies angrily.

“We didn’t tag the places,” Callie adds.

“You don’t think her ex-husband wouldn’t know where you all hang out? He knows it’s probably at one of Savannah’s places. He’s been to them all, he could have worked it out from the background,” he explains.

Oh.

“I didn’t think of that,” I say quietly.

“No shit,” he states.

“Would you back off? She didn’t know this would happen. We are all in shock that he did this in such a public place. You think me or Savannah don’t feel bad, but she was going to the toilet, she was just there,” Callie explains.

“And yet he still was able to grab her,” Smith bites.

“Enough. I will not have you blaming my friends,” I say, pointing at him.

“You all promised me,” he argues.

“I know, Smith,” I yell at him as I start to cry again. “Never in my life did I think the man I thought I would spend the rest of my life with could harm me in any way.” My brother starts to speak, but I shut it down quickly. “No, I do not want to hear your statistics about that right now. I want a shower. I need to wipe his touch from my skin. And then when I come back, we’re going to have a stiff drink and work out what to do next with that psycho.”

16

GIORGIO

Callie: Paige lost her phone. She wanted you to know she’s okay.

Callie: If you need her, contact me.

Giorgio: Thank you for letting me know.

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