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CHAPTER ONE

“EXPLAIN this, or pack up your things and get out”

Paige Harper looked up frory eyes Having hih to leave her speechless Breathless He was handso It was hard to look away froed Then she looked down at the newspaper he’d thrown onto the surface of her desk and her heart sank into her stomach

“Oh…” She picked up the paper “Oh…”

“Speechless?”

“Oh…”

“I said explain, Ms Harper ‘Oh’ is not an explanation in any language that I ae suddenly felt two inches tall

“I…” She looked back down at the paper, open to the lifestyle section, theDante Romani to Tie the Knot with Employee Underneath the headline were two pictures One of Dante, looking forbidding and perfectly pressed in a custom-made suit And one of her, on a ladder, in aat Colson’s, hanging strips of tinsel fro in preparation for the holiday season

“I…” She tried again as she scanned the article

Dante Romani, notorious bad boy of the Colson Department Store e of a top exec, and for replacing the faaged to one of his eaned business them at will

Her stohtened with horror She couldn’t fathom how this had ended up in the paper She’d done a fair a to fix the lie she’d told the social worker, but she’d thought she would have some time She hadn’t expected this, not even in her wildest dreams

But there it was, the lie of the century, shouting at her in black and white

“That’s hardly more eloquent, or more informative”

“I told a lie,” she said

He looked around her office, and her eyes followed his, over the stacks of fabric sa out of the in the corner and Christmas knickknacks spread over every surface

He looked back at her, his lip curled upward “On second thought, why don’t you skip packing and just walk out I can have your things express delivered to you”

“Wait…no…” Losing her job was unthinkable, as was getting caught in her lie She needed her job And she really didn’t need child services to find out she’d lied during her adoption interview Well, what she really needed was a tio back and opt not to lie to Rebecca Addler, but that was probably a bit too complicated as solutions went