The Italian's proposal

Timothy

Timothy looked at the picture and wanted to break the head of the detective who was taking a drink of whiskey in front of him.

Undoubtedly it was her, the woman who captivated him in just a few minutes, the one who stood up for every single comment he said to her. He fell into her diabolical game without realizing it, without calculating or analyzing it.

Timothy vowed to himself never again to fall for any other woman, after Gia cheated on him, he fell for Melody, and she betrayed him.

But he would make her regret it.

He looked at the photograph again, there were more than twenty of them, the man was extreme with his work. The detective took out more than six to start with and then he had emptied the whole thing on the desk, as if it were a treasure he found.

He reminded himself that this was what he was paying him so much money for, enough so that he wouldn’t have to do any work for more than two months, he knew it was high, but he wanted the job done quickly and efficiently. He was putting together a whole portfolio for Equilay Thompson, but his brain was at that moment beginning to scheme something else, something vastly stronger and more vindictive, a ruse involving a young pregnant girl, an unholy goddess with hair as dark as night and gray eyes.

The woman in the photo was smiling shyly, not as she laughed with him as they went to the clinic the day before. Another picture showed her hugging what the detective explained was her older sister and Thompson’s wife. He would recognize that woman anywhere, from the moment he set his eyes on her and heard how she didn’t mince words to treat him differently because he had money and she didn’t, he knew it was going to be hard to forget and for that reason he didn’t have to wait for the detective’s explanations.

It was Melody, the same one he kissed last night, the same woman he wanted to fuck on the couch, not caring that she was pregnant by another man. The one who reactivated his desire to trust another human being besides himself.

But she just had been mocking him and his innocence. Laughing at his expense. He didn’t doubt that Thompson gave her a piece of the three-million-dollar pie.

How gullible he had been!

He had been fooled by her angelic face and her shy, mischievous look.

to entertain him

himself he felt like throwing up, punching the blunder news giver, and killing

me to keep investigating Thompson?” he heard

the company, freelance, evaluating different buyers and investors, not because he distrusted them, but because he was suspicious of the world. It wasn’t personal, just as it hadn’t been as personal in relation to the theft of the three million dollars. He had, he wanted to make Thompson pay for his theft, for his embezzlement, for his lack of respect and ethics. But before he had all the evidence,

to think that Melody influenced his conscience, he didn’t want to think it. But the truth was, his inner voice was telling him that

look how she’d

enough. Thank you, Pedro,” he shook the hand of the gray-haired detective with the lively

the reaction

no

are about to break the desk Mr. Giannatto. This seems to

that’s what I pay you for, not

stood up taking

you around. I remain at

thing was that, on this

couldn’t identify it, but it was much

himself unwittingly to a stranger.

out of the garden and walking toward a point at the other end of the house from Thompson and her sister. The next photograph was Melody running her hand across her cheek, which he assumed to be wiping away tears. His heart softened just for a second, but then he remembered that she knew all along who scammed him and hid it. She kept quiet, keeping a secret that was destroying him and could cost him the management of his company. His head kept thinking that she already knew who he was when he

his phone, he spoke

have today. If my mother calls, tell her I’ve got everything taken care of,” he was proud

to work out for him. He would look out for his own