Page 71 of Billionaire's Desire

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“What’s wrong?” she asks.

“I... I know her,” I say, struggling to find the right words. “Poppy was Pen. Pen was my brother’s fiancée.”

Chapter 13

Maggie

“Whatthehellareyou talking about?”

Max practically jumps out of the bed, a look of pure horror evident on his face.

“Pen is Poppy,” then pointing at me, he adds, “That means you’re Meg.”

My throat immediately closes up.

He shakes his head vehemently. “You can’t be the same Meg. It is not possible. You are different. You can’t have been the one… the one responsible…”

I can hear my heart break in my chest at his accusation.

Everything else comes flooding back in.

How I was barred from my best friend’s funeral.

Her fiancé sued me for everything I had.

He was the reason I was at a low-income job on a yacht, in the middle of nowhere despite my severe aversion to the sea.

He was the reason I was on the verge of losing my house, my car.

My family bakery!

My dream.

Finn Cole is the nightmare that has haunted me the last couple of years. The person whose shadows I feel every single day I wake up.

As if losing Poppy was not enough, he had made sure that I had lost everything.

And here I was, like a goddamn fool, falling for his brother.

Sleeping with him.

I had given this man my virginity.

Angry tears spill down my cheeks.

“Max. Tell me you are lying.”

I am pulling the sheets off his bed, trying to hide underneath them, trying to reverse the events of the last couple of minutes.

I just admitted that I liked this man, only to find out that he is related to the one person who hated my existence more than anything—all because I had decided to keep it a secret.

All because I had tried to protect my best friend, my family, even in death.

“Tell you?” Max runs his hand through his hair. “Tell you what? I am the one who should be asking for answers.”

The look he gives me staggers me. It is a look filled with revulsion, disgust, anger.

“You are the reason I almost lost my brother. Pen was his whole life. He was devoted to her. And then he lost her and I lost him.”

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