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Joy frowned. Was this all a mistake? She knew it wasn’t. Bobby and Max would not have come to get her. They would have phoned Michael Iverson and ordered him to bring her in. “Then when did it happen?” she asked William.

William hesitated.

“When? If it wasn’t two weeks ago, then when?” The when was everything to Joy. But he was still hesitating. And she was afraid to go there too.

But somebody had to. “Was it since we’ve been married?” she asked him.

He frowned. “No! What do you take me for? Of course not!” Then he settled back down. “Of course not.”

“Then when did it happen, William? I have to know when.”

“It happened months ago. Nine, ten months ago. Before we were even committed to each other.”

“Before you met me you mean?”

William wished that were true. “Before we were committed,” he said again.

“But you had already met me?”

He hated to admit it. “Yes.”

That scared Joy. “When did it happen? After you said I was your girlfriend for the first time?”

“No, Joy. Before then. We weren’t in a committed relationship when it happened.”

But her feelings for him, and she thought his feelings for her, were almost right away.

And that other thing that was on her mind too. “Was she married when you slept with her?”

William hesitated. He hated to admit that too. “Yes.”

It was Joy’s turn to frown. “But why would you sleep with a married woman, William? She’s in the ultimate committed relationship. Why would you sleep with her?”

“I wanted no strings attached. A married lady provided that easily.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Married women want nothing in return. They understand it’s going nowhere. Which makes it easy on both sides. That’s what it means.”

But Joy was disgusted. “And their vows be damned?”

“They made those vows,” William said. “I didn’t.”

But that still didn’t sit right with Joy. What kind of man did she have on her hands? “Did you cheat on your first wife?”

Now William was getting peeved. On top of the shitstorm he knew he and his corporation were about to face, she was giving him a hard time too? “What on earth does my first wife have to do with anything at all, Joy?”

“Just answer my question!”

William gave her a hard look. “Don’t you dare talk to me like that.”

“And don’t you dare try to gaslight me!” Joy was getting as hot and bothered as he was. “Your first wife has everything to do with it because I’m your second wife and I need to know what kind of man I married. Because right now you ain’t looking so hot!”

William couldn’t believe she said that. “Are you telling me you’re having second thoughts about me?”

“You mean like all those second thoughts you’ve been having about me?”

William stared at his young bride. Her natural instinct was to always fight back. And she was coming out of the ring with both dukes up. It broke his heart that he was the one who had brought her to this point.