Tempting the Mafia Twins novel · Chapter 6 of 24

Chapter 6: Paid to Lie

I smiled, and I congratulated Nico, and I said I needed the powder room.

I walked out of the dining room on legs I couldn't feel.

The woman in the blue dress had slipped out a minute before me.

I found her in the marble bathroom off the front hall, gripping the sink with both hands.

She looked up in the mirror and saw me lock the door.

"Please," she said. "Not here."

"You were in that bed."

"I know."

"You looked at me. You didn't even look surprised."

"I was told you'd come," she said.

Her voice shook.

She was maybe twenty-six, my own age, with the kind of pretty face you forget until you're hurt by it.

"Told by who?"

"I can't."

"My daughter died on a staircase that night. You sat in a sheet and watched me find you."

She flinched.

"I didn't know you were pregnant," she said. "I swear to God."

"They said it was a joke on a husband. They said you'd laugh and go home."

"They."

"I was paid to lie in that bed." Tears were running down her face now, quietly.

"Ten thousand dollars. I was paid to lie there and say nothing."

"I have not slept one night since."

"And now you're engaged to him."

"I didn't choose that."

"Who paid you?"

"Ask your husband," she said. "Ask Carmine who paid me. He knows."

The door handle rattled.

"Cassie?"

It was Carmine's voice, tight and low.

"Open the door."

The woman wiped her face and fixed her hair with two fast hands.

By the time I turned the lock she looked like a bride-to-be who had gotten a little emotional.

She slipped past Carmine without a word.

He looked at me, and at her back, and I saw him understand all of it.

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