FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS (Ophelia Corrigan) novel Chapter 203

CHAPTER 203

– SIMON

“Come in,” she finally said. “It’s cold out here.”

I stepped inside first to get a look around, then moved aside for Jamie.

The living room was small and spotless. A folded throw lay on the couch, old photographs lined a sideboard, and a wall clock ticked so loudly it was almost irritating.

“I’m Rosa,” the woman said. “Have a seat. I’ll make coffee.”

“We don’t want to put you out,” Jamie said.

“You already have. Might as well have something to drink.”

I liked her a little more after that.

Martin settled into an armchair. Jamie sat on the couch, and I took the spot beside her.

Rosa returned carrying a tray of mismatched cups and a coffeepot that looked as though it had survived several decades. She poured the coffee, sat across from us, and held the photograph in both hands.

“This is Annie,” she said, touching the little girl’s face. “And that’s me. It was the store’s anniversary.”

Jamie leaned forward.

“Were you related to her?”

Rosa shook her head.

“Not by blood. But I raised that girl. She was my daughter as far as I was concerned.”

The silence that followed wasn’t uncomfortable.

“How did she come to live with you?” I asked.

Rosa rubbed her thumb along the photograph’s edge.

“Her mother lived on the streets. She begged with the girls and slept wherever she could. I’d lived on the streets myself before I managed to open my shop. Sometimes I’d give them food. Then one day, their mother showed up and said she had some things to take care of. She left Annie and her sister with me. Said she’d be back soon.”

“And she never came back,” Jamie said quietly, piecing it together.

“No. She never came back for them.” Rosa swallowed hard. “At first, I waited. Eventually, I realized those children needed someone who could take care of them.”

1/5

11:58 1 Read Now

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

78

55 vouchers

I looked at the photograph. The second child, almost completely obscured by the stain, suddenly seemed far more significant.

“You raised both girls?”

“I did what I could. We didn’t have much money. But they had beds, food, and an education. I made sure of

that.”

Jamie set her cup on the table.

“What was Annie like as a little girl?”

For the first time, Rosa smiled.

“Smart. Picked things up fast. If I made a mistake with the store accounts, she’d catch it. Loved reading behind the counter. And she was affectionate in her own way. She’d never tell me when she was sad, but she’d leave little notes on the refrigerator to make me smile.”

“And when she got older?” I asked, encouraging her to keep talking now that she seemed comfortable.

Her smile faded.

“She became more withdrawn. Kept everything to herself. Sometimes she’d go days saying only what she absolutely had to. I’d ask if something was wrong, and she’d tell me everything was fine.”

“Was she afraid of someone?” Jamie asked.

Rosa looked up sharply.

“Why would you ask that?”

“We’re trying to make sense of some things that happened recently,” I said. “Annie may have important information about an incident involving my company. We’d like to speak with her.”

“Did she do something wrong?”

“We don’t know. And we’re not here to accuse her of anything.”

Rosa studied me as though deciding how much she could trust me.

“Are you police?”

“No,” Martin clarified. “I’m a private investigator.”

“Then who are you people?”

I thought of the Hart name, the headlines, the people who’d been hurt. I didn’t want to turn her living room into another extension of the crisis consuming my life.

“Ms. Rosa, do you have any idea where Annie might be? We only want to talk to her and clear a few things up.”

11:58 1 Read Now

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

She didn’t look satisfied, but she answered.

678

E 55 vouchers

“Annie left years ago. Said she wanted to work and make a life for herself. Promised she’d come back to visit, but we lost touch completely. I waited for her that first Christmas. Then the second. Eventually, I stopped counting.”

“Did she leave an address?” I asked.

“No.”

“A phone number?”

“She and her sister both changed their numbers.”

“A boyfriend? A close friend? Anyone who might know where she is?”

“Not that I know of. She never brought people here.”

Jamie hesitated before asking her next question.

“What about her sister? Maybe they’ve stayed in touch.”

Rosa lowered the photograph into her lap.

“Neither of them ever came back to see me. Not once.” Her voice cracked. “I raised them like my own daughters. Sometimes I wonder if I did something to drive them away.”

“That doesn’t mean you did,” Jamie said. “People pull away for reasons that don’t always have anything to do with the people who love them.”

Rosa nodded, though I could tell she didn’t entirely believe it.

Martin asked a few more questions about dates, schools, and people the girls used to know. Her answers were

vague.

When we stood to leave, Jamie thanked her for the coffee. Rosa walked her to the door, holding on to the photograph for another moment before handing it back to Martin.

That’s when I noticed the shoe rack beside the hallway.

There were two pairs of shoes. One was a worn pair of dark, low-heeled leather shoes. The other was a pair of black platform sneakers with shiny laces, far too youthful for the elderly woman standing in front of us.

It might have meant absolutely nothing. Still, I glanced down the hallway again.

“Ms. Rosa, do you live alone these days?”

She cleared her throat.

“Yes, I do.”

3/5

11:58 Read Now

FAKE DATING WITH BENEFITS: MY BILLIONAIRE BOSS

“Only asking because this looks like a lot of house to keep up with.”

Her gaze flicked toward the shoe rack.

“A girl comes by to help me clean now and then. She leaves a few things here. That’s all.”

“I see. Thank you for having us.”

We left the house, and I kept my hand against Jamie’s back as we walked toward the sidewalk.

G78

55 vouchers

Martin spoke with us for a few more minutes and promised to discreetly follow up on the information Rosa had given us. Then he said goodbye and headed to his car.

I helped Jamie into the Range Rover and got behind the wheel. We’d spent most of the day in Newark, and despite everything we’d learned about Annie’s past, we still had no idea where to find her.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify