The Demetrios Bridal Bargain by Kim Lawrence Page B

Rosie. The reptile has been having an affair with the nanny.’
    Rose’s jaw dropped. ‘The nanny!’
    â€˜And the thing is, Rose…’ the pity in her twin’s voice made Rose half suspect what was coming next ‘…well, the thing is, it’s been going on for two years. I wouldn’t have told you, but if you’re coming back to London you’d have been bound to have found out.’
    Rose closed her eyes. ‘You both warned me, didn’t you? And I didn’t listen.’ The memory of one of the last conversations she had had with Nick and Rebecca before she’d left began to replay in her head.
    Rebecca and Nick had seen what he was like all along.
    Eyes bleak, she lifted the phone to her ear. ‘Well, it’s easy to see why he found it so easy to keep his hands off me.’ They were all over the nanny. She closed her eyes and allowed her head to fall forward. ‘I thought his love was pure . Tell me, Rebecca, is there much insanity in the family? God, when I think about how he must have been laughing at me.’ She scrunched up her face and swallowed the humiliation burning like bile in her throat.
    â€˜I could kill him,’ Rebecca said at the other end of the line.
    Releasing a strangled laugh, Rose raised her head and, phone pressed to her ear, she pushed her hair back from her face with the crook of her elbow. ‘Not if I get to him first,’ she said, allowing her head to sink into the backrest.
    â€˜Just don’t do anything crazy. I’m catching the next plane over there. Planes do go up there, don’t they? I’ll ask Nick. Nick…’ Rose could hear the sound of a muffled conversation. ‘Nick says—’
    Rose cut her off. ‘Calm down, there’s no need to fly over here from New York. I’m fine.’
    â€˜Liar, but if it makes you feel any better he’s had the push from his job…even before the affair came out. He made a major and very costly mistake and there was no Rose there to cover it up for him.’
    â€˜I did cover up his mistakes, didn’t I?’ she said with a groan as she thought of all the unpaid overtime she’d put in to make sure that he looked good. ‘You must think I’m a total fool.’
    â€˜Who am I to throw stones, Rose? It’s not as if I have a brilliant track record when it comes to men.’
    â€˜You’ve got Nick.’
    â€˜I wish you had a Nick.’
    â€˜You and me both. But the Nicks of the world are pretty rare.’
    â€˜Rose says you’re rare.’
    â€˜I’m unique…how is she? Tell her I’ll beat the skunk up for her if she—’
    Rose, who had been listening with half an ear to the conversation between husband and wife, suddenly cut in. ‘I’m not.’
    â€˜Rosie,’ Rebecca said, sounding worried. ‘You sound really odd. You’re not what?’
    â€˜I’m not coming back to London.’ She didn’t love Steven. The Steven she had loved had never actually existed outside her fertile imagination, but she could tell Rebecca this until she was blue in the face and it wouldn’t do any good. And sympathy and understanding were the last things she needed right now. They would only remind her of what a prize idiot she had been.
    What did she need? That was the question…
    â€˜So you’re staying there?’
    â€˜Can’t. I got the sack.’ Rose barely registered her sister’s shocked gasp. She was considering her options—they were rather limited. She’d sublet her flat. She wanted to avoid her sister flying back from the States, her parents’ searching questions, and she was reluctant to dip into her meagre savings.
    Was this the moment to throw her customary caution to the wind? Well, being cautious and doing the right thing hadn’t got her very far except in the geographical sense.
    â€˜You got the sack?’ Rebecca