Page 55 of Not Mine To Love

Ana pulled the contents out of the envelope and her face tensed in disgust.

She tossed the envelope on the desk in front of her and looked up at her mother, her face showing an emotion I wouldn’t have recognized if I hadn’t looked at my own mother that way so long ago. It was hate.

“How dare you?”

“What?”

“How dare you?” Ana said again, furiously knocking the pictures off her mother’s desk to the floor. “What did you do? Did you seriously hire someone to follow him around? To invade our privacy?”

“I did what I had to do,” Claire said, clearly surprised that Ana’s anger was directed toward her.

“What you had to do?” Ana’s tone was venomous.

It was then that Julius walked in.

“What’s going on in here?”

“What’s going on is that it’s over, Julius. There’s no way Ana will marry you now.”

He looked from Claire to Ana. “Ana, what is your mom talking about?”

“She hired someone to follow you. Take a look.” Ana gestured toward the envelope now on the floor. He bent down and looked at the pictures that spilled from the envelope.

“Wow… you stooped to a new low, Mom.”

I was confused. What were the pictures of? I hadn’t given her any pictures. At least not any pictures that were incriminating.

I reached for the envelope. There were pictures of me leaving his home. There were pictures of us walking together. There were pictures of us embracing. And then there were others not so innocent. Someone had gotten quite a few shots of us of that night I visited him in his home. There were pictures of us kissing. There were pictures of me in various stages of undress. And then there was a very telling picture of both of us looking disheveled and satiated. There were others of us. Lots of others.

Who had taken them?

“How did you get these?” I asked, finding my voice.

“Your boss.”

It all made perfect sense now. I remembered running into her at the park while I was following Julius. I remembered thinking how nonchalant she was about me taking on fewer clients. Because the whole time I thought I was following Julius, she was actually following me.

“But how?"

“Oh please, stop playing innocent. I knew he was attracted to you when I saw how pushy he was about paying you that day at the botanical garden. And I wasn’t surprised. At all. All guys fall for the doe-eyed blonde. It was only a matter of time, so I had your boss tail you until it happened.”

I felt sick. She deceived me, and I played straight into her hands.

I wanted to disappear. I had to get air. I had to get away from her. This was insanity. It was one thing to know that Ana didn’t care about what happened between Julius and me, but it was another for her mom to know what happened too. I was humiliated. It made me feel dirty. I felt like a whore. She was right about me. It had been only a matter of time before Julius and I slept together.

I went to leave when Ana grabbed my arm catching me by surprise. The steely look in her eyes made her practically unrecognizable.

It was a look her mother definitely mastered.

“Don’t leave, Becca. You’re not at fault here. You’re a real class act, Mom. A real class act.” Her voice was low and vicious.

Claire looked shocked. Now she was the one at a loss for words.

“What? Are you angry with me? I’m not the one who cheated—" Her voice cracked, and she tried to regain her composure. “How dare you take that tone with me, young lady? I only did what was best for you.”

“What was best for me? Setting up my fiancé? Violating his privacy? That’s what was best for me?”

“None of this is my fault. He made the decision to pursue her; I just provided the means.” She sounded so self-satisfied. But she was right. So right about me. I made it easy.