His Paris Affair (The Albury Affairs) by Christina Ow

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know each other without the contempt and ills that, the threesome carried, but

my mom wanted nothing to do with her or her children. I stumbled on the letter

Cora wrote to my mom after our dad died.” He shook his head. “It was balled up

and tossed in the trash like it meant nothing. She’d poured her heart and soul

into it and all my mom was fixated on was how I was screwed out of an

inheritance.”
    “Then you planned to take it away from Reno.”
    He stared into her eyes in earnest. “You need to understand…I

grew up angry. I was nothing but a nuisance to my mother’s boyfriends and

husbands’ who wanted a trophy wife who was once Argentina’s revered model. And

I was my mother’s burden, a hitch in her otherwise perfect life and it was all

my father’s fault. A man I never knew nor met because he didn’t want me. That

hurt only grew when I found out he didn’t want me because he had another

family, another wife he loved more, and another son he wanted more. I just

fitted well in his plans that one time then I was no longer useful to him.”
    She placed her hand over his tattoo of a skull with a sword

through it and a snake wrapped around the hilt, on his shoulder. Once, she’d

asked him what it meant and with an embarrassed smile, he told her it was a

gang tattoo. ‘One day, I’ll tell you all about it’ he’d said before quickly

changing the topic. She thought he was joking and was going to press the issue

but something in his eyes, in his rigid frame dissuaded her.
    “And the gang?”
    “They wanted me. My whole teen life I spent it being some

strangers nightmare, but some time in juvenile detention straightened my ass

out. I decided I liked living more than being wanted by someone.”
    Melody hugged him, wishing she could somehow take his hurt

away. No child should grow up like that. And if she didn’t find a solution

soon, Esme would be just like her father.
    She felt his breath at her neck as he exhaled. “She keeps

calling, pressuring me to get the resort back even after it’s been swallowed up

by Red Roses. I’ve already paid her back, with interest but all she wants is to

hurt Cora even in her grave.”
    “Because she was the one he picked.”
    “Because he wanted Cora’s children more than he did hers.” He

shook his head. “What hurt her most was that they were never truly married.”
    Melody stiffened. “What?”
    “He was legally married to Cora. My mom’s marriage was

nothing but a sham, a practical joke. He hired actors to officiate over it and

the license, something he printed off the internet.”
    A tremble shook her. Married

to two women, god, all this is too close to home.
    “He hurt them both terribly. And us the kids who had to grow

up watching, me listening to the hatred…he had no idea the damage he caused.”
    Hiding her own pain, Melody sat back, taking his face in her

hands she said, “Well, we already agreed the man was an idiot and a rotten

bastard. The only good thing he ever did was have three awesome kids.”
    He smiled faintly at her. “I just wish my mom had let me get

to know them. Growing up with Reno would have kept me on the straight and

narrow. I wouldn’t have this gang stamp on my shoulder…but it’s a good reminder

of the person I don’t want to be anymore, of a life I never want to go back

to.”
    “He really was an idiot, but you’re lucky. You have Reno,

Riana their beautiful babies and spouses and Matthew and his family by

extension. See? You got lucky! Not everyone makes good with ill intentions.

God, I can’t believe Loraine is pregnant—”
    “And you,” he said softly cutting her off.
    “What?”
    “You, I have you. Or don’t I?”
    Melody was locked in place by his searching eyes. Everything

inside her wanted to scream yes, but god she couldn’t do that! She wanted to

tell him he had his own family, his own daughter who kept her heart beating

even when she wished it didn’t, but