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Her eyes narrow. “You’re having me followed?”
“My father is. And not you. Stewart. He’s interested in a business opportunity and wanted to make sure the guy was clean.”
“When did you find out about this?”
“Yesterday morning,” I admit. “He has photos.”
“Of mefuckingNathaniel?”
I wince. “Of course not.”
“That’s why you…last night. You believed him. You thought I was cheating.” The anger I can handle. The hurt in her voice is worse.
“It looked bad, Scarlett. And it’s not like youhaven’t.”
She breaks eye contact for the first time. “That was before, Crew.”
“I know.”
“And I’m sick of having that flung in my face. Like you haven’t been with anyone since we got married.”
“Actually, I haven’t.”
She looks shocked. “You haven’t?”
“Nope.” I roll up my sleeves and head for the couch, pulling the takeout containers I assume are for me out of the bag and grabbing a pair of chopsticks. My chest feels lighter for the first time in thirty-six hours. And I’m starving as a result.
“I—why?”
I shrug and start eating. “Wasn’t interested.”
That admission is met with a long beat of silence as she sinks back down on the couch and picks up her food. “He gave me money,” Scarlett finally says. When I look over, she’s fiddling with her chopsticks again. “ForHaute.”
“Why the hell would you need money?” I ask. Even before she married me, Scarlett was set to become the richest woman in the country.
“I’m going to inherit a lot. My parents paid for everything: cars, penthouses, tuition, credit cards. But I don’t have direct access to anything. Or Ididn’t, until I got married.”
“What?”
“I’m an only child. If I didn’t get married and have kids, there wouldn’t be an Ellsworth heir.” She purses her lips. “My father didn’t want to take any chances, apparently. He put some strict conditions on my trust fund. I’m sureHauteturning profitable gave him quite the scare.”
“You wouldn’t need to get married then,” I realize.
She nods. “I wasn’t…opposed tothis.” She gestures between us. “I just wanted to do it on my own terms, I guess. And if I’d waited until we got married, thenHautewould have already sold. I didn’t have many options.”
“I would have given you the money.”
“Like I said, I didn’t have many options.”
I half-smile at that. “Is he still involved?”
“No. I paid him back as soon as we got married. In full.”
“Did you sleep with him? Back then.”
“No. I don’t mix business and sex.”
“So he tried to.”
