The Innocent Behind the Scandal (The Marchetti Dynasty 2)

‘We need to talk.’

She didn’t look so shocked now. She moved back. ‘You said you never wanted to see me again.’

‘That was before...’

‘Before what?’

Suddenly Maks was reluctant to ask if she was pregnant, not ready to have that conversation yet, so instead he said, ‘Did you sell the photos, Zoe?’

‘I told you I didn’t, but you refused to listen to me.’

‘I’m listening now.’

Zoe said nothing for a long moment, and then, ‘You’ve actually saved me a phone call. I was going to ring your office today.’

‘About what?’

‘I know who did sell the photos.’

Maks frowned. ‘Who?’

‘I was hacked by my ex—Dean Simpson. He works in IT and my passwords wouldn’t have been hard to crack. I upload all my pictures to an online storage facility. It’s a reflex—something I learnt to do long ago, to make sure I don’t lose work.’

Maks refused to let go of his cynicism completely. He folded his arms. ‘Why would he hack you?’

Zoe paced away to the window. She looked very slight under the voluminous cardigan and in her loose pyjama pants.

She turned around. ‘He must have seen the pictures of us and acted out of spite and jealousy. I didn’t tell you everything about him—about why he...attacked me.’

A sense of unease prickled over Maks’s skin. ‘Tell me now.’

She faced him properly. Her scars stood out against her pale skin. ‘The reason we broke up was not just because he wanted an intimacy that I realised I didn’t want. It was because he wanted something else from me. He hadn’t looked me up in London just because he happened to be here—he’d targeted me.’

‘Why would he target you?’

For a long moment she said nothing, and then, ‘Because he found out who I was and what that meant.’

Maks frowned. ‘What are you talking about? Who are you?’

Zoe started to pace back and forth. Maks tried not to let his gaze drop to where the vee of her T-shirt dipped low enough to reveal a hint of breast. Even that tiny hint of provocation had heated blood rushing to his groin.

‘Zoe,’ he snapped, in response to her effect on him. ‘I don’t have all day for this.’

She looked at him, eyes huge. He saw her jaw set.

‘I didn’t ask you to come here. If you have more important things to be doing then by all means leave.’

Maks forced his blood to cool. ‘Go on.’

She took an audible breath. ‘I didn’t tell you who my parents were. My father was Stephen Collins, the photographer and author, and my mother was Simone Bryant, the heiress.’

Maks shook his head as if that might clear it, trying to better assimilate this information. He knew her father’s name—anyone with even a passing interest in news and current affairs would have heard of Stephen Collins, the world-renowned photojournalist who’d covered some of the grisliest wars. And Simone Bryant had famously been the last remaining heiress to a vast fortune built from one of Ireland’s oldest breweries. Maks had a vague memory of a golden society couple...

He focused on Zoe again. ‘You lied to me about who you are.’

Zoe bristled visibly. ‘I didn’t lie. I just didn’t tell you exactly who I am. Collins is a common name...’

/> ‘Your father won a Pulitzer prize for his non-fiction and then he became a bestselling crime author. I have his books on my shelves.’ He stopped, recalling how Zoe had been looking at the books on his shelves in London. She’d probably been laughing at him the whole time. Dio. ‘Why the hell would you hide who your parents were?’