The Hockey Captain’s Unwanted Wife (Blair and Grayson) novel Chapter 294

Chapter 294

Chapter 294

~LORETTA~

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I stared at the place where his hand had closed around her wrist. The touch had been brief. It still made me

sick.

“I can’t believe she’s still in his life,” Charlotte whispered. She had set the book down. Her voice was low enough that the staff moving between the cabanas would not catch it. “I haven’t seen her in so long.”

Charlotte knew her? It meant that I was right. She was someone important in Marco’s life.

All three of them had gone still the second Caterina put her hand on his chest.

Now they were around me, Blair dripping water onto the sand, Olivia with her water bottle forgotten, Charlotte watching the rocks where Marco was now walking with her. Their concern was quite obvious. It made the heat in my face feel worse.

He had walked her away from us. Away from me. For privacy. The contract had a clause about exactly this. We weren’t supposed to see other people.

No stories that could make the marriage look unstable.

He knew that. He had been the one to point at the lines. Then why was he allowing someone to get so close to him? Why was he carrying her somewhere that none of us could see their interaction?

“Who is she?” I asked. “You all clearly know. He won’t tell me. I’ve asked in the past and he made an entire issue out of it.”

“Caterina,” they said at the same time.

“Caterina?”

They nodded. Olivia’s mouth was tight. Blair glanced toward the rocks and then back at me.

“Marco refuses to say anything about her,” I said. “She showed up at the house already. He told me to drop it when I wanted to know more about her. I still don’t know what they are. What relationship they must have had or still do. She seems very close to him.”

Charlotte’s shoulders went stiff. She looked at the water for a second, then at me. “Caterina is his ex-girlfriend. His only serious one before you. They were together a long time. Happy, from what everyone could see. Marco planned to marry her. He proposed. She turned him down. She told him she had outgrown him. That he wasn’t enough anymore. That she had found someone else and she was going to try with him instead. This was before he had the name he has now. The family was always rich. He still wanted to build something that was his. She didn’t want to wait for it. She left. It broke him. We all saw it. It was painful to watch. I didn’t know she was back in his life.”

The words stayed in my chest and ached. I pictured him younger, standing with a ring and a plan for their future, and her deciding he was a phase she had finished.

Cruel was not a strong enough word. And now she was back. On his beach. Hand on his chest. Totally ignoring me in the background.

“That’s why we’re surprised she’s still around,” Olivia said quietly. “It’s strange. He doesn’t do this. He doesn’t let people back in after they leave. Especially not her. He has made sure to keep his distance.”

“You don’t have anything to worry about,” Blair said. She meant it. I could hear that she meant it. “She’s stirring things because she knows he’s taken. That’s what people like her do when they realize they may no longer have a chance. I know that from my own personal experiences. People like her want what they can’t have. They hate losing access,”

I wanted to believe her. The fact that he had frozen when she touched him made me think otherwise.

Charlotte turned toward the water and raised her voice. “Luca.”

He was waist-deep, already arguing with Roman about something. Those two always seemed to be arguing

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Chapter 294

with each other.

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He frowned, said something short to Roman, and made his way back to us. Water ran off him. He looked at the three of them, then at me, and his expression shifted.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “And why do all three of you look like you want to harm me? Did I do something?”

“Not you,” Charlotte said. The snap was small and precise. “Your brother.”

Luca’s frown deepened. “My brother? If it’s my brother, then why are you looking at me like that?”

“He just walked off,” she said. “To get some privacy. With Caterina.”

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