Chapter 216
Her phone rang. It was Harper
“I found her,” Harper said, her voice grim. “Victoria Hayes, Histo Hayes Shipping. Her family and the Thorngo hack three generations. They were practically betrothed in the cradle.”
“…italskywuskel, leaning her forehead against the cool glas
“It’s complicated,” Harper said. “She’s been in a Swiss clinic for the last two years. Exhaustion, they said. But the rumors are… mental instability. Osive behavior. She tried to kill herself when Alistair started dating a model three years ago.”
“The White Lotus,” Skye muttered. A woman who used fragility as a weapon. She knew the type. Seraphina used pregnancy, Victoria used suicide.
“She returned yesterday because of the news,” Harper continued. “Becas Alistair claimed you publicly. She’s here to mark her territory.”
“Held to me,” Skye said. “He said it was business,”
“Maybe it is,” Harper said. “Her father is under investigation for smuggling. Maybe Alistair is protecting the merger.”
“I don’t care about mergers,” Skye said. “I care that I’m suddenly in a love triangle I didn’t sign up for.”
Shahung up.
She went to the bathroom and turned on the shower. She scrubbed her skin until it was raw, trying to wash off the feeling of Liam’s hands and the other fumes.
When she stepped cat, wrapped in a row, she heard a noise in the living room.
She from. She grabbed a heavy vase from the counter-her weapon of choice lately.
“Who’s there?”
Alistair was sitting on her sofa. He looked exhausted. He had changed his shirt, but he still looked like he had been through a
war.
“How did you get in?” Skye soked, lowering the vaw hat not putting it down.
“I own the building,” Alistair said simply. “Skys, why did you leave the hospital?”
“Low the news,” Skye said. “Victoria Hayo. Your fac
Alistair sighed. He rubbed his face with his hands. “She’s not my fiancée. She’s…a responsibility.”
“A responsibility who clings to you at airport? A responsibility you rush to in the middle of the night?”
Alistair stood and walked toward her. “Skye, listen to me carefully. What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room. It puts lives at risk.”
He stopped a foot away, his voice dropping to a whisper. “Victoria isn’t sick. The clinic in Switserland? It’s a front.Sha’an Interpol agent. She’s been deep undercover for two years, building a persona as an unstable, drug-addicted his to get clow to a cartel financier operating out of that clinic.”
Sky stared at him.”Undercovery”
“And now she’s back because her cover requires her to react to our news. The fragile ex-fiancés’ has to come home to fight for her man, or the cartel gets suspicious. I have to play along, Skyw. I have to validate her cover story, or she’s dead.” Skye looked at him. Show the truth in his eyes. It wasn’t betrayal; it was duty. But it didn’t make it hurt any less.