Maybe… this entire new mining bid was a trap from the start-
A trap Niamh Rivers had carefully set for Marina Thornton.
Jonathan Thomas had come to that conclusion long ago, yet he’d kept it to himself. And now-
That possibility had become reality.
Jonathan squeezed his eyes shut, his features contorted in pain.
But it wasn’t the agony of his chronic stomach trouble.
It was the guilt–the sickening sense that he’d become Niamh’s pawn in bringing
Marina down.
And yet, in Niamh’s eyes, he’d always been Marina’s accomplice.
Curled
up with stomach pain, sweat slid down the bridge of his nose, but the ache
in his chest was worse.
The woman who used to make him soup from scratch, who once carried him down eight flights of stairs when his pain was unbearable-
She was gone.
She wasn’t coming back, and she wouldn’t care for him again.
For a wild moment, Jonathan wished the pain would just finish him off.
After leaving the Thomas Group, Niamh drove to Coralis.
She didn’t want to go, but if she wanted to bring Marina down, she needed help from two people she’d hoped never to see again–contacts arranged through Carlisle.
Hayes Quinn and Carlotta were waiting for her at a restaurant.
When Niamh walked in, safe and unharmed, Carlotta’s eyes filled with tears of relief.
Back when Niamh had gone missing and later landed in the hospital, Hayes and Carlotta had rushed to her side in their hearts. But Niamh, through Carlisle, had made it clear–she didn’t want to see them.
09:03
Chapter 489
For the sake of her recovery, Hayes and Carlotta had kept their distance, relying on Carlisle for updates.
So when they heard Niamh needed their help, both were overjoyed.
Their biggest fear had always been that Niamh would cut them out of her life for good.
If she could have avoided it, Niamh wouldn’t have come to Hayes or Carlotta for anything. But to lure Marina in, she needed the credibility and influence of Coralis‘ city government.
And the Quinn family was the city government.
Niamh took a seat across from Hayes and Carlotta.
Carlotta dabbed at the corners of her eyes with a napkin.
Niamh knew Carlotta wasn’t faking her relief or her happiness.
But affection that arrives too late is worth less than weeds.
When she’d been framed and dumped in juvenile detention, Carlotta and Hayes–if not the architects–had certainly been their accomplices.
Later, when she was forced to reinvent herself as Niamh, it was these two who had paved the way.
After Katarina Quinn lost the right to live as herself and had to become Niamh, she’d never wanted to lay eyes on them again.
She’d believed they felt the same.
Until their unexpected reunion, they’d never reappeared in her world.
Now, seeing them feign deep longing disgusted her.
Still, Niamh sat through dinner, letting Hayes and Carlotta prattle on about the Quinn family’s current affairs.
She wanted nothing to do with the Quinns, or with Hayes and Carlotta.
But if one meal could bring about Marina’s downfall, she didn’t mind the price.
“By the way, Rina-”
“Please. Call me Niamh.”
Niamh looked up, her gaze cool and distant as she met Carlotta’s eyes.
09:04
Chapter 489
Carlotta flushed, embarrassed.
Niamh’s cold detachment stung, but Carlotta knew she had no right to feel wounded.
After all, the pain Niamh had suffered would always be deeper than her own.
“Niamh…” Carlotta finally managed.
“Your ex–husband, Jonathan… What kind of man is he, really?”
Niamh’s hand tightened around her fork and knife.
So this was why they’d invited her to dinner.
1996 over
