Settling the Score (The Summer Games #1)(99)

At first, I thought Georgie had overestimated the content of their conversation.

“This reminds me of the good old days in Cambridge,” he said with a wistful tone.

Caroline giggled and Georgie cleared her throat.

“You know those are some of the fondest memories I have.”

Dr. Dunn leaned closer to the phone. “I did receive your payment the other day, but it would be quite unnecessary if you were amenable to my alternative. Honestly, Caroline. You know I’m mad about you—are you sure it’s worth faking a paternity test just to be with a man who doesn’t love you? You and I could have—”

“Hush, Nick. You know how much this marriage means to me. I love you, you know I do, but I’m too stressed to think about all of this right now. Please don’t make this more difficult than it has to be. You and I will always have something special between us, truly.”

Their tone wouldn’t have drawn the attention of the patrons around them, but to me, her words were good as gold. From “darling, I adore you”, they slipped so easily into the conversation we’d all been waiting for. Dave practically chomped at the bit, hovering over the conference table, tirelessly taking notes on the things we were overhearing.

“We must keep this between us, darling…”

“You’ve been such a good friend to me through this all, you must know how much your help means to me…”

“Freddie insisted on the paternity test as we assumed he would, but he would never suspect your involvement…”

“Sophie will run the story as soon as I give her the go-ahead…”

Caroline had finally slipped up and dug her own grave, and Georgie, the brilliant little detective, had been there to listen to her do it. I’d known for weeks that Caroline Montague was a manipulative, conspiratorial, dishonest woman, and now the world would know too. It was time to finish this whole thing once and for all.





CAROLINE AGREED TO dinner right away. She answered my call with a ‘darling, I’m so happy to hear from you’ and she’d crooned into my mobile about how she’d been hoping for a reconciliation once we’d arrived back in London. She admitted that the circumstances of the pregnancy must have come as quite a shock, but that she knew, in time, I would come to understand her reasoning behind putting a wedge between Andie and I.

“I just couldn’t lose you like this Freddie,” she said, reaching across the table at the restaurant Georgie and I had agreed upon. We’d only been sitting at the table for ten minutes and I’d already had enough. Her hand fell on top of mine and I took in the sharp shade of red covering her nails. It was the same shade she’d smeared across her lips—lips that were currently tipped up in an innocent little smile. She was dressed in a silky cream dress, back to looking the part of the innocent angel. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could let her get away with it.

“I think you’ll make a wonderful father, Freddie.”

Had I eaten the bread they’d brought to our table, it would have come back up with that comment.

“How is the pregnancy going so far?” I asked, careful to watch her face for any sort of tell.

She pressed her hand to her stomach as if there was really something there other than the French baguette she’d stuffed down her throat a second earlier. “I’ve been having bouts of morning sickness off and on, but everything I read says that’s normal.”

I nodded.

“I’m just glad I was able to make it to all of your races.” Of course she was. They couldn’t resist showing her on the stadium screen. She played the role of the nervous fiancée just the way they wanted her to. “You were brilliant, Frederick,” she continued.

I nodded and took a sip of water.

“How has your mom taken the baby news?” she asked.

I thought back to the call I’d had with her the day before. It’d been strained and short. “What will you do now that you’ve returned from Rio, Frederick? You’ve turned down every event. The press are beside themselves to get an exclusive with you. I think you ought to come out and clear the air. You need to let the world know that Caroline is your fiancée and the mother of your child, and that you’re not leaving her for some girl you met four weeks ago.”

Four weeks.

How had so much changed in four weeks?

“Freddie?”

I shook my head, glanced back up at Caroline, and lied. “I haven’t spoken to her in a few days.”

Her brow perked. “Ah, well, I’m sure she’s so excited.”

I couldn’t sit there any longer. I’d gotten her to the restaurant and she had her guard down; sitting there any longer wouldn’t serve any purpose.

“Georgie can’t wait to become an aunt.”

She swallowed down a piece of bread slowly and then reached for her glass of water. After a long, drawn out sip, she finally glanced up to me. “Oh, that’s such good news.”

I leaned forward so that the nice couple at the table beside us—people who were actually enjoying their dinner—wouldn’t hear me. “It’s a shame she won’t become one for quite some time.”

Her eyes narrowed, but her tone stayed light. “What do you mean?”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh, give it a rest already, Caroline. You aren’t pregnant.” She set her glass on the table as I continued. “Georgie found the emails you sent to your friend, Dr. Dunn. Nice guy with a practice in central London? He must have had no trouble adding your name to the ultrasound photos.” I never gave her a chance to cut me off. “Tell me, was he going to lie to my face when we returned to London? Pass along forged medical records with your name on them? What about a paternity test? Would we have seen him about that as well?”