Page 78 of Betrayal

“I’ll get on to it tomorrow.Now, tell me about the visit starting from the beginning.”

“When I arrived at five, the place was weirdly quiet.”Anna spoke slowly, summoning an image of Hunter’s HQ.“No vehicles parked outside.No staff.He came out of his office, and we went back there.The blinds were shut.I thought something was wrong, and then he started acting oddly—"

“Did you ask about the missing staff?”

“No, although at the end I asked if delaying work on the centre was some sort of hit at me.”Anna replayed that bit of the conversation in her head.“He seemed more concerned that I’d think he’d renege on the centre than about the photos.What’s that about?”

“Not sure.”Her brother-in-law added the detail to the huge calculator he carried in his head “So, you showed him the photos of his battered ex-girlfriend.Anything else?”

“He shuffled some papers, tucked the envelope that had been on top underneath.”She frowned in remembrance.“The envelope was express delivery.Same size as mine.”

“Could Nick have compromising photos of you?”

“Where would he get them?”Anna stared at her sister.“Neither of us has shared even a vaguely compromising photo in the last decade.”

“Photos can be doctored,” Liam reminded them.“Although there are more publicly available tools to check whether a photo’s been tampered with these days, and you can pay for a proper analysis.”

“OMG!”Anna sat upright.“The most embarrassing moment of my life was that party.Nick Richardson was there.”

“You said there were no photos.”Kate studied her.

“Yeah, and the agreement said no sex, but they honoured that rule.Like hell!”Anna scanned her memory, going over her movements at the party.“Nick, or someone with him, must have taken photos of me when I bounced out of his birthday cake.”She curled her hand into a fist.“But that’s ridiculous.I was wearing a pretty impenetrable disguise.”

“You were naked,” Kate said meaningfully.“Did you put makeup over your scar?”

“What scar, and why is it important?”Liam leaned forward in his chair.

“Upper thigh, a crescent moon.That night was the zenith of my teenage rebellion.Makeup, wig—Dad’s new play was premiering in Sydney.One of the makeup crew was happy to give me pointers on how to distract.No one would recognise me except for the scar.Don’t look at me like that, Maybelline.”

“Like what?”Kate held up innocent hands.

“Like you were responsible for me being pissed off with Dad.”

“Dad was unshockable.”Kate repeated an old argument.“Thought your anarchy reflected well on him.”

“You were eighteen.You’re thirty-two this year.”Liam was trying to make some sort of point.

“I’m younger than her.”Anna jutted her chin in her sister’s direction.

“Fourteen years, Anna.”Liam waved his hand to attract her attention.“We’re talking before any of the social media behemoths became big.Before wide-scale use of mobile phones for sharing videos and dick and tit pics.Before ready access to AI tools.These days people bent on revenge steal real photos and plaster them on naked bodies, even naked bodies having sex, to trash someone’s reputation.It’s a crime, but you’ve got to get the police to take notice and provide evidence the photo was taken and/or distributed without consent.Even if you prove that, it’s almost impossible to get the stuff taken off the internet.”

“Nick could use the photos to target me, to trash my reputation.”The idea made terrible sense to Anna.

“It’s plausible,” Kate said.

“Hunter was lying to me to protect me.”It was the sort of thing Hunter would do—send Anna out of harm’s way.“The idiot.”

“Again, plausible.Does Hunter know about the party?”

“I told him about it the first time I saw Nick Richardson.Told him what I did and gave him a chance to walk away early.”

“Even though all men are superheroes, sometimes we have doubts.And sometimes we step away from the woman we love because of some half-arsed concept of chivalry.”

“Chivalry and stubbornness don’t leave much room to manoeuvre.”Anna sighed, because she was sure that’s why Hunter hadn’t called.

“Bottom line.Would Hunter cut you off to protect you?”Liam asked.

“Yes, but for me, locking me out is also a kind of betrayal.”Her eyes were starting to sting again.“We’re better together.Like you and Kate.If he can’t see that, we have nothing.”

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