Page 76 of Valentino

“We didn’t live together but he would come to see me whenever he needed me.”

“For sex?”

“For love.”

“If he loved you, why was he with me?” I ask.

Our eyes are locked, an unwelcome truth hangs in the air between us.

She crosses her long legs and my eyes drop to the split up her thigh. “You were just a decoy so that he could get closer to his target.” she continues.

My heart sinks as I stare at her beautiful face.

Another knife to the heart.

I imagine them talking about his plans to defect, discussing his fake romance with me.

All that time I thought we were together, but he was only pretending because he had an agenda to gain trust. His plan worked too; you couldn’t have gotten closer to the group than we all were.

Nobody saw it coming….

“Is he alive or not?” she snaps, impatient.

“I don’t know,” I lie. “I haven’t heard from him.” Anger begins to pump through my veins.

That motherfucking traitor….

How could someone be so cold, I wish to God I never met him.

And I fucking hate this bitch…how dare she come here? How dare she plan his deceit right alongside him?

“If he is alive and he loves you, I’m sure you will hear from him.” I close my notepad with a sharp snap. “Husbands do that.”

“He won’t call me if he’s in danger.”

“How do you know that?”

“He would never risk my life.”

I stare at her smug face, sitting there all entitled with her collector’s Birkin, dripping in Chanel. Did he pay for that…. Of course he did.

“How well do you know Carlo?” I ask.

“I know everything.”

“What he does for work?”

“Yes.” She nods.

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“He surprised me with a white Porsche for my birthday and we went away for the weekend to celebrate, he was supposed to be back on the Tuesday but he never showed.”

I blink as I do the math. Carlo did get a new white Porsche not long before everything went down, but he only had it for two days before it got stolen….

But it didn’t get stolen.

It was for her…. I begin to hear my heartbeat in my ears.