Chapter 11-Tristan

Tristan

My attraction to this woman was ridiculous. Not only was she my daughter's nanny, but she was also married. She had spent the night in my house instead of her marital bed, snuggled up in her husband's arms. No matter what the story was, I shouldn't be touching this situation with a ten-foot pole.

That was what my brain thought, but my body was a mess thanks to her. As pathetic as it sounded, meeting Bella Clair had stirred up something in me. I wanted to kill her husband and I'd not even met the bastard yet. It was for the best. I was the one making his wife stay over at my house and conjuring up shower thoughts of pushing her against a bookshelf and kissing the life out of her.

It was a good thing Rina showed up with a file of her detailed background check.

I flipped it open as soon as it touched my desk and frowned. "Only one picture?"

"It's a surprise the PI even got it." Rina looked exhausted.

"Is this her husband?" I asked, clenching the file tighter than I wanted to admit. I could only see the man's back but I couldn't mistake the hands wrapped around it. Those were Bella's hands. Hell knew how I could be able to recognize them after only knowing her for a short while. It was no fetish of mine.

"The PI isn't certain of their relationship. But according to further investigation, the man is Misael Cartier."

"Just great." I hissed. I had tried to forget the Cartiers with my entire being and just when they were about to fully slip out of my mind, Misael makes a grand appearance.

But if I thought that was all, Rina's next words explained the fear on her face and knocked me out of my infatuation.

"It's only a suspicion at this point, but the PI thinks this woman could be Misael's twin sister, Isabella Cartier."

______

Giggles welcomed me as soon as I opened the front door. I stepped in slowly to not startle Aurora and her new nanny, who was proving to be more suspicious by the second.

The duo had their backs to me, sitting on the carpeted floor at the coffee table. I had no idea what they were doing but they both had paper tiaras on their heads and were probably making something, chatting away happily.

Aurora lifted an ornament and put it on Bella's head, then saw me when she turned. She set everything aside and ran all the way to me. "Daddy!"

I knelt to her level and squeezed her tiny frame. This was a warm welcome, compared to the usual mess I often came back to, moments before the nanny quit.

"How has your day been, princess?" I steadied her paper tiara which proved how much fun she'd had with her new sitter. As if it reminded her, she took a few steps back and curtsied, then rambled on about the props they had made for their new ice kingdom.

When Bella finally stood up to meet me, I got a glimpse of her face and immediately decided there was no way in hell she could be Isabella Cartier.

I had seen Isabella Cartier one or two times in the past and she was as spoiled as they come. She probably wouldn't let a child get so close to her for fear of ruining her expensive outfit, much less play a dress up game and end up looking disheveled with paper necklaces around her neck and a paper crown on her head. Bella didn't even seem to mind it. On the contrary, she looked like she was enjoying what Isabella would probably think of as ruining her million-dollar look.

"Mr. Lexington." She offered a smile, one more thing Isabella Cartier was incapable of doing. I was a Lexington. That pampered princess would definitely not want anything to do with me.

Despite all this, I needed to be sure. So, while joining them at the table to play, I used the chance to dig for information from her.

"I take it your husband doesn't mind you staying here for too long? I need you for several more days if you don't mind."

She laughed bitterly. "My husband is more preoccupied with counting the days until he meets his son."

My eyes immediately dropped to her stomach before I looked up and met her sad smile. Then I realized what she was saying. "I'm sorry."

She shook her head through her smile. "It was time."

It finally explained why she was here a few days after being in Rome, unaccompanied, and why she had no ring on her finger despite claiming to be married.

I thought back to the picture Rina had delivered and pushed. "Is Clair his surname or yours?" I immediately justified my question with "I don't want to call you Miss Clair if it will remind you of him."

She pushed a sharpie to the center of the table. "It's not his."

I wanted to ask what her husband's surname was but it would be too obvious. It was no coincidence that she was so close to Misael. If she was not his twin, she could be his wife. I didn't know what was worse and sure as fuck didn't want to find out.

I took the chance when she was organizing everything on the table to study her face. Her lashes were long, dark, and thick and for the first time, I noticed how dark her eyebrows were. There was no way her hair was naturally platinum. She had to have bleached it. Not that it was a crime, but it gave me an ominous feeling, which intensified when her phone buzzed.

Aurora had been playing with it for a while and when she stretched her little hand to give it back to its owner, I caught the name that flashed on the screen. Max. Her eyes dimmed and I instantly knew who Max was. Her husband, the one I'd just called a bastard. I hated to see her eyes lose their sparkle for a second but at the same time, a spark of hope reared its head at the prospect of her not having a good relationship with her husband.