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Josh winks. “I mean, you don’t have to really get back with her. You can pretend. You’ve done it before.”
My and Chelsea’s fake engagement had nothing to do with business and everything to do with pleasure. I wanted her and saw an opportunity to make that happen. “I will not secure the company through lies and deceit.” I open the car door and hold out my hand. “It was nice seeing you again, Samantha, now out. Josh will make sure you get home safely.”
Samantha leans forward and looks from me to my cousin. “No. I will sit in the front if you don’t want me in the back with you.”
I look past the car and at my PA, who taps her wrist, telling me I need to make headway or I’ll be late.
“I will sit in the front.” I slam the car door shut and make my way around the vehicle with Josh fast on my heels.
“Remember your father wants you to marry Samantha. She is the only niece of Simon Matthews. Marry her and put her up in one of your estates. You can focus on work, and visit her during the quiet periods…”
I stop walking, causing Josh to crash into my back. I capture his shirt by the collar and I pull him close so our faces are but inches apart. “If you presume to go behind my back and interfere with my love life again the deal is off. I cannot go into business with someone I cannot trust. Do I make myself clear?”
Josh swallows. “Crystal.”
I release his shirt and slide into the car. McKenzie indicates and heads down the large driveway.
“It’s nice to see you,” Sam says from the back seat.
I nod and turn my attention to my phone. I scroll through the pictures I have of Chelsea, pictures I’ve been meaning to delete, but can’t muster the courage to get rid of. Deleting the photos is closure, closure I am not yet ready for.
We drive in silence for an hour, so long that I almost forget Samantha is sitting in the back seat.
“Do you want to come by Freesdon Hall sometime?” she asks. “I know how special the house is to you, and because of that I haven’t changed a single thing.”
I angle the mirror in front of me so I can see Samantha. Maybe after all these years I will get the answer to the question that’s been playing on my mind. “Why did you do it? Why did you go to the press and have an article written about me, about us?”
Tears glimmer in her eyes. “You wouldn’t see me, and you changed your number. I knew if I had an article written you’d read it. I did it to get you back.”
“Ha!” I can’t help the sarcasm in my tone.
“I mean it.” Samantha leans forward in her seat and wraps her arms around me. “What I said to Darren Moore isn’t what was published. He twisted everything I said to make you sound bad.”
I take her arms from me and sit forward. “Doesn’t matter, you were engaged to someone else the whole time we were together.”
I angle the mirror so she can’t escape my stare. Her lower lip trembles, but she holds her composure. She looks down into her lap and fidgets with her charm bracelet. “That’s just it,” she says and looks up. “I wasn’t. There was never anyone else, only you.”
Now she’s sparked my interest. “There wasn’t another man?”
Samantha sinks back into the seat, her lips pursed tightly together.
My temper frays because more than anything I hate liars. “I suggest you start speaking before I stop this car and hurl your ass out onto the road.”
“I had no choice.”
I jump. Her words come out louder than I had anticipated.
“He threatened to ruin my family if I stayed in a relationship with you. He said he would have my father fired from his job and us living on the streets. That is the only reason I got back in contact with my uncle. I thought that if I wasn’t just some poor nobody we could be together. I wanted to have the article retracted, but my uncle made it abundantly clear that he didn’t want our name dragged through the papers for a second time.”
I hold up my hand. “Sam, you’re going too quick. Who threatened you? Who was going to make you homeless?”
“Josh.”
I pivot around in my seat and give her no other choice than to meet my gaze.
“I don’t believe you.” She has to be lying. Josh is my cousin, but more than that, he is like a brother. “I know Josh.”
“Not as well as you think you do…” Her words trail off, but not once does she break eye contact. Samantha could never look at me when she was lying, whereas Josh on the other hand has always had the perfect poker face.
