But just as I reached the restaurant entrance—
"How much longer do we have to sneak around like this?"
The woman's voice, petulant and sharp.
"My grandfather's birthday banquet is next month. My mom keeps asking me to bring you home."
Her words landed like hammer blows against my heart.
"I can't exactly tell them—" she said, each syllable a nail driven deeper, "—that I'm actually some married man's dirty little secret. That I'm the mistress nobody's supposed to know about."
"And turn my whole family into a joke."
My footsteps halted.
I had assumed—foolishly, perhaps—that she was innocent. That even if I had to confront this, I shouldn't drag some naive girl into the wreckage. That whatever needed to happen between Roger and me, we should handle it cleanly, between ourselves.
I'd planned to tell her the truth. That she'd been deceived.
But this?
This made everything so much simpler.
A cold smile curved my lips as Roger's voice floated over.
"Don't worry."
"Everything I owe you—"
"I'll make it up to you. All of it."
I drew a deep breath and gently freed my arm from my colleague's grip.
"Wait here for me."
I met her confused gaze.
"There's something I need to handle."