Vincent lifted Natalie’s hand to his mouth as he turned onto their street. “We’re home.”
“Good, that’s good,” she replied. Her eyes were scrunched shut, but she wasn’t as pale as she normally was. Perhaps that a good bout of sex before she got into the car was the answer. He could roll with that if it would help ease her anxiety.
When the house came into view, he slammed on the brakes. “What the hell is going on?”
“What’s wrong?” Natalie opened her eyes and peered through the windshield. “Are those reporters?”
“And Billy—he’s on the front porch.” Vincent pulled out his phone and called his friend. “Hey, man, I’m at the top of the street. What is all this?”
“Didn’t you get my messages?” his friend yelled, waving his arm around wildly.
“No. I don’t have reception out there, you know that.”
“We have a problem. A very serious problem. I’ll see if I can make a hole for you. Just pull straight into the garage. Don’t stop and don’t say a word, either of you. We’ll talk about it once we get you inside.” He hung up, and Vincent handed Natalie his phone.
“Vincent?”
“I’m sure it’s nothing. Billy said he’ll tell us once we get inside.” His hands rubbed on the steering wheel, debating turning around and driving to his mother’s house instead, but this was his home. No reporter was going to chase him away from it. “Whatever you do, don’t talk to them.”
Natalie nodded, her hands shaking as her face paled.
Vincent felt the exact same way. He pressed on the gas, and as carefully as he could, drove through the mass of people in front of his house and opened the garage. Billy rushed over to keep anyone from following them in, and Vincent immediately shut it as Billy ducked inside.
“What happened?” Vincent asked as Billy ushered him and Natalie inside. All the front blinds were shut as well as the ones at the back of the house. “Billy!”
“Ask your damn wife!”
Natalie flinched at the malice of his words. “Me? I’ve been gone all weekend, remember?”
“All I know is someone talked. They have everything. They know about the website, they know you paid a fee to use the website, and they know you married the wrong twin! They know it all, and they are demanding answers about why we lied to cover it up!” Billy threw his arms in the air as he yelled. “They want to know what’s wrong with you and if you really thought this plan would fool anyone into thinking you’re not the bachelor playboy!”
Vincent ran a hand through his hair as he paced around the kitchen. Everything was falling apart. All of it. He turned to Natalie, still shaking her head in disbelief.
“I didn’t do this,” she whispered, tears burning in her eyes. “I swear I didn’t.”
He hurried to her, hugging her. “I know you didn’t. I trust you.”
“Well, I don’t,” Billy snapped. “She could’ve been feeding information to your rivals the whole time!”
Vincent started to yell, but Natalie cut him off, pushing out of his arms. “Here,” she yelled and chucked her phone at Billy’s face, hitting him square on the nose. “Check it. Check the computers in the house, you asshole. I haven’t done anything except marry this man and fall in love with him. Don’t you dare stand there and accuse me of betraying him!”
Billy picked up her phone from where it hit the floor and slammed it onto the kitchen table. “It has to be you. No one else would know.”
“That’s not true and you know it,” Vincent argued.
Billy snorted. “You’re so blinded by love right now, it’s sickening.”
“What happened to you?” Vincent yelled. “You came up with this idea in the first place. We all knew the risks of being found out! You told me you had it covered, so what the hell are you doing, Billy? Maybe you’re trying to sabotage me.”
His friend flinched as if he’d struck him, and Natalie rested a calming hand on his arm. “Vincent, he wouldn’t do that to you.”
Vincent shot her a sideways look and sighed, his shoulders sagging. “You’re right. Sorry, man.”
“No, no…it’s fine, really. Natalie, I’m sorry, too. I just…I have no idea how this happened.”
“Why don’t you go get cleaned up?” Vincent suggested to Natalie. “We’ll figure out a plan of action.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah…yeah, I’m sure.” He kissed her sweetly.
“Don’t you decide to talk to them by yourself. No matter what, we’re in this together,” she reminded him and headed upstairs.
Once she was out of earshot, Vincent cursed and slammed his fist on the kitchen island. “Where the hell is that Hank Butcher? Is he the one doing this to me?”
“His name is on the article. He has several quotes from an anonymous source. I have people working on it, but they’re not getting very far. I know what you’re going to say, but I have to ask, just to be sure. You have absolute faith that it was not Natalie?”
Vincent’s nod was firm. “I do, without a doubt.”
Billy’s twitching lip said he didn’t believe him, but he dropped the subject. “Then for now, you stay inside this house and you do not talk to anyone. Don’t answer the phone or the door, got it? I’ll get them pushed back to the street until we can get a handle on this.”
“What exactly are they saying?”
Billy cringed. “That you paid for a wife, and when you didn’t like the first twin, you switched her out with the second.”
Vincent groaned, his head falling to his hands. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, that about sums it up,” Billy agreed. “Keep your head down and we’ll figure this out.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.
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