Page 5 of Married to Lies

I stared at him and drew my feet off his desk. “You need to get out of this office. Get some fresh air. Maybe a vacation would help.”

“Rei, I don’t need a vacation.” His features shifted into a softer expression. “Don’t you believe in intuition?

“Yeah, but⁠—”

“Something was off,” he insisted. “I felt it. And you told me that you never wanted to put your employees at risk again. Doesn’t that include the risk of losing their jobs if MyHome goes belly up because they’re under investigation?”

My stomach turned uncomfortably. “It does, but⁠—”

“All I’m asking is that you keep an eye out for anything suspicious about MyHome, especially where Quentin’s concerned. If you don’t see anything, you can let me know you were right.”

For a long moment, I studied Conrad. We’d worked together for the better part of five years, rebuilding my company from the ground up. I owed him the benefit of the doubt for all he’d done for me as acting CEO.

“What do you propose I do?”

“Do what you do best. Listen, observe. See what you can find. Because we may have no choice but to report MyHome if they’re committing fraud.”

I stood up, ready to leave, stomach churning with how upset I was. “They’re our biggest client,” I reminded him.

“Please?” he whispered as my hand touched the doorknob. “For me?”

“I will,” I murmured reluctantly. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to ask around about Prodian just to put Conrad’s mind at ease. Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever this was, it wouldn’t end well.

2 Quentin

Two weeks ago

“I’m heading out for the evening,” my assistant, Daniel, said around six o’clock. “Need anything before I go?”

I looked up from the phone sitting on my glass-top desk. “Did marketing send over their updated purchase orders?”

He nodded, his beard touching his tie as his chin dipped. “Yes. And I already got your year-end bonus suggestions to the executives for approval.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Any notes you want me to deliver?”

I shook my head.

A slight frown pinched his forehead, but he quickly smoothed his features and said, “Have a good evening.”

“You too.” I watched until he rounded the corner and stared down at my phone again. Why was it so much easier to dictate a sticky note than to type out a message? Outside my office window, the city lights were flickering to life like a carpet of stars while the sky stretched above in an orange haze.

But all I could look at was my phone screen, which was open to a blank text with her number in the receiver’s spot.

There were a million things I wanted to tell her.

You’re beautiful seemed to be the obvious option. Because she was gorgeous—curvy with dark-brown almond-shaped eyes and onyx hair so smooth that it always seemed to be spilling from the quirky claw clips she wore and framing her heart-shaped face.

But her looks seemed like the wrong place to begin, because she was endearing for so much more than her appearance. I looked out the wall of windows lining my office, and the Dallas skyline faded from view as I thought of her.

In a world where everyone filled silence with noise, she was perceptive, adding humor when someone seemed to be down. Keeping to herself when someone was in the flow of productive work. Commiserating with my assistant toward the end of a long workday. I knew Daniel enjoyed his work, but he never smiled like that with me.

It was her.

I’d taken to going to the Caf on the ground floor of The Tower every day for an afternoon coffee run just to glimpse her while she worked on the lobby. Sometimes I’d see her talking with her friend Jada, who was also Bryce’s fiancee, laughing and conversing without reservation, unlike me who always kept my guard up.

I’d learned the hard way a strong defense was necessary. I kept my cards closer to my chest, but Rei held nothing back.