Phoebe was getting ready to tell the woman to leave her alone when she saw the photo on Diane’s phone. “Yeah, that’s him. Ben.”
“No, that is Riley Marston the third, the CEO of this company and heir to nearly a billion dollars.”
“Wait…what?”
Phoebe hadn’t heard her right. She couldn’t have. There was no way the CEO of this company would be dating her. They’d met by chance! Or, was it really by chance? She stared at the picture until Diane pulled it away.
“I am only going to tell you this once. You are to stay away from Riley Marston.”
Phoebe shook her head, trying to focus. “Why? You like him or something?”
“You are not going to ruin my chance of getting what’s mine. You stay away from him and don’t even think about marrying him.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, her mind whirling with possibilities.
Diane glared at her long and hard, then smirked. “You really don’t know about it, do you?”
“Know what?” Phoebe hadn’t meant to yell, but too much was happening for her to keep it all straight. Ben—or Riley—had taken the files from her place. Not because of any weird reason but because he was the CEO of the competing company. Why hadn’t he just told her who he really was?
“He has to marry within two months or he forfeits everything he has, including this company.”
“I don’t understand…” But then she remembered the mysterious Bruce Wayne on the website. “Has to marry in two months…that’s why.”
“What are you muttering about?”
“Nothing, just…I have to get back to work.”
Phoebe tried to push past her, but Diane reached out and grabbed her arm in a tight grip. “You are to say nothing about this to anyone. Understand? If you do, I’ll be sure that Yancey fires you on the spot, and you and your poor, sick mother will be screwed.” She squeezed hard enough to make Phoebe wince, leered at her, and stomped off, her heels striking the floor harder than they had before. She tossed her hair over her shoulder and disappeared through the front doors.
For a long minute, Phoebe just stood there, her arm throbbing from the woman’s touch. Riley Marston. She was dating not a pirate, but freaking Bruce Wayne. And he hadn’t even told her. There had to be a good reason. Maybe the two-month-marriage thing? Whatever the reason, Phoebe felt herself growing angrier by the second. She’d trusted this man with so much of herself, and he had lied to her. Flat-out lied. What was to say it wasn’t a setup to get information from Yancey? She couldn’t help him bring down her own company! Furious at herself, she stormed out of the lobby and hailed a cab. The whole way back to her office, all she could see was his face and the truth of just how many lies those blue eyes had been hiding.
***
Ben made his way back upstairs, staring at the papers in his hands and trying to understand what he just saw in the lobby. Things were not adding up all of a sudden with this Anna woman, who may or may not be who she claimed to be. The file in his hands told a completely different story of a woman who looked a lot like her. It was going to kill Riley if it turned out to be right. Ben wanted to hide it all, but he couldn’t do that. Whatever was going on with Yancey and Chandler involved this woman too.
That, and Mitch Harper, of all people, had been her date at that damn function.
Everyone knew that Mitch was the major problem solver for anyone with deep enough pockets. She had to know who he was, which meant the night Riley had run into her had to have been a setup. The whole thing was a lie. A damned lie. Ben thought it had been bad enough when Meredith died. But this? This wasn’t someone dying. It was a betrayal.
“Ben? What’s wrong?”
Linda came up to him and glanced at the file in his hand. “Is that on Anna?”
“Yeah, and it’s not good. Just saw her and Diane having a pow-wow in the lobby downstairs.”
“About what?”
“Don’t know, couldn’t hear anything except them say Riley’s name.”
Linda shook her head. “But Anna thinks his name is Ben.”
“Exactly. Where’s the big man at?”
“He’s having a drink to calm himself down. Diane really got to him this time,” she said as they headed towards Riley’s office. She started to sit back down behind her desk until Ben asked if she’d go in with him. “Is it that bad?”