Read Online Hidden Heart by Camelia Miron Skiba - Free Book Online Page A

over my projects
before you talked to me leaves me no choice. I either stay and fight the
accusations or I quit.” Her belly tightened in a knot. She saw the
short look exchanged between Victor and Alessandro with Victor’s
resigned facial expression. “Fine then. I’ll leave.”
    Victor tried to stop her.
“Tessa, you’re interpreting things wrong. I realize this is a shock
for you, but things aren’t that bad. You are not fired; you are
just asked to step aside for a while. Just until the investigation
is over. I think it’s a good idea for you to take a couple of weeks
off; try to clear up your head, sort things out, relax and then
we’ll call you back in.”
    Tessa held a hand up as if
to stop him and left without a backward glance—except the sideways
glance she threw at Alessandro. She went to her office, made a
terse call to the office in Vienna announcing she wouldn’t attend
the meeting after all and left. She almost knocked Eva off her feet
when she came around the corner. She mumbled a short “I’m sorry”
and disappeared inside the elevator ignoring the shocked look on
her assistant’s face.
    Tessa drove like a maniac
ripping out of a straightjacket with quick stops and starts in a
jerking fashion. But she didn’t care. All she wanted was to get
home as soon as possible and try to understand what had just
happened.
    Why aren’t you answering
your phone? Where are you? I need you. She
called Daniel’s phone numerous times, but got no answer. Her fear
turned to anger. She slammed down her phone. She willed herself not
to cry again.
    She had invested ten years
of her life in that company. She remembered how shy and overzealous
she had been in the beginning; trying to learn everything, helping
everybody and making herself irreplaceable. She remembered how she
started working directly with Victor and how he took her under his
wing, taught her all he knew in the business. Then her first
success came when she closed a deal with a big real estate company.
She loved going to work and she considered herself happy and lucky
for having such a career. Her pride, her sense of accomplishment
was now threatened. She thought she was in the right place; all of
a sudden everything disappeared. After all the hard work, this is
what she got back?
    Then she thought maybe this
was a sign; maybe she really needed to shift her priorities and
work on her relationship with Daniel; after all, they had been
together for so long. Maybe they needed to take their relationship
to the next level and as much as she didn’t want to get married,
maybe they should start building a family. She imagined several
scenarios in her head how she’d get home and when Daniel returned
in the afternoon from work they could have a serious talk about
their future.
    With this arrangement in
mind, she parked her car then noticed his car parked next to her
parking spot. Concerned for him she rushed upstairs. When they last
spoke, before she left for work that morning, he didn’t mention
feeling sick.
    The front door was
unlocked. As Tessa walked in the house, she heard music playing and
voices in the bedroom. She passed the kitchen, down the hall
towards her bedroom and then heard a female voice.
    “ If she knew, we’d both be
in trouble,” followed by laughter.
    A sinking feeling in her
stomach, Tessa stopped confused. That voice sounded familiar, who
was it?
    Then she heard Daniel,
“Don’t you worry, dear, she isn’t coming back until Friday. We have
the house to ourselves.” More laughter.
    She opened the bedroom door
on Daniel with another woman, both naked and drinking wine. She
only saw the woman’s back.
    Daniel froze with his glass
of wine halfway to his mouth. He jumped out of the bed, pulled his
shorts on and grabbed Tessa by the shoulders.
    “ Oh my God, this is not
what you think,” he exclaimed and turned her around towards the
living room. He guided her to the sofa and helped her sit
down.
    For the second time that
day,