Rejected Heiress, Reigning Queen novel Chapter 130

Carter's chest tightened in sudden panic. Had Emma figured out he rented out all the other properties in the area to force them together?

"How did you know about Martha?"

Emma sat down in a chair. Aside from her mother, Martha was the person she had relied on most growing up.

Realizing she meant the nanny and not the room situation, Carter let out a massive sigh of relief.

"I've been keeping an eye on you since before you went abroad."

Carter frowned with a heavy dose of self-reproach. If he hadn't distanced himself back then just because Emma was Percy's fiancée, she never would have had to suffer so much.

But he knew there was no point in telling Emma that now, so he simply swallowed his guilt in silence.

Emma looked at him in surprise, but since Carter clearly didn't want to dig into the past, he quickly changed the subject.

"When Jeff was tracking her down, he did a little digging. Martha didn't quit her job at the Lockwoods; she was—"

"She was kicked out."

Emma finished the sentence flatly. She had already guessed as much when Martha hesitated earlier.

"Martha had a really tough life. She married and had kids young, but before she even turned thirty, her husband was paralyzed by an illness. She had to leave home and find work as a nanny just to afford his medical bills and support the kids.

The Lockwoods used to pay her a thousand dollars a month, and she sent nine hundred of it straight back home. Her kids were raised by relatives, and she barely got to see them a few times a year. Every time she missed them, she'd hide in her room and cry."

Carter's gaze grew deeper and more intense as he looked at her. After a long, agonizing pause, he added carefully,

"Her daughter is two or three years older than you."

Emma didn't register just how intimately Carter knew Martha's history, assuming it was all just from his background check. Still completely absorbed in Martha's tragic past, she simply nodded.

Carter maintained his intense gaze, his mind drifting back to a summer camp survival exercise where he had accidentally gotten separated from his instructors.

On the second day he was lost, he ran into Emma. This bright, radiant little girl had taken his hand, asked if he was lost, and dragged him all the way to the local police station.

That was the first time they ever met, and it was an encounter he would never, ever forget.

Emma never expected the truth to be so ridiculous. Looking up at the man staring back at her with such desperate, anxious sincerity, she suddenly burst out laughing.

She couldn't believe she let such a stupid misunderstanding spiral into a mountain of unnecessary drama.

It seemed that spending too much time around the Lockwood family since she returned had actually made her paranoid and slow.

"No matter who the flowers are from next time, I won't ever take—"

"You don't need to say that."

Emma suddenly reached out. Before Carter could even process it to shake back, she firmly grabbed his hand.

It was just a simple handshake, but Carter felt like he was spontaneously combusting. He stood there stiffly, utterly terrified to move a single muscle.

"Carter, to avoid any more stupid misunderstandings, I expect us both to be completely honest and responsible partners during this arrangement."

"Do we have a deal?"