"You okay, boss?" Natalie asked, concern evident in her voice.
Dani plastered on a smile. "Fine. Just... processing all this new information. Could you ask Kris to stay on the line, please? I want to run some other stuff past him while he’s available. Patch him through to my office.”
“Of course,” Natalie replied, while Dani gathered her things, and slipped into the welcome quiet of her private space. Well, private until Zack got back, so she needed to be quick.
“Kris,” she addressed their IT consultant as soon as the link was available. “I need a favor please.”
“Of course,” the blonde, bespectacled guy said with a disarming grin. “What can I help you with?
“Ah… it’s kind of personal, so I need discretion,” she told him, suddenly second guessing herself. Did she really need to dig into this? What good could come of it?
It’ll steel your heart against the panty-melting charmer talking to Luca,she reminded herself.
“I need you to run a check on Zack Kincaid,” she finally revealed, trying not to wince at the shocked look he gave her.
“Umm… I’m not sure that’s altogether justified,” he hedged.
“It has nothing to do with this project, Kris,” she reassured him. “It’s… he’s asked me out, but I was told he’s married, and I don’t want to be the other woman.”
“From a reliable source?”
The horse’s mouth. Not that she could say that.
“Someone who knows him very well,” Dani said instead. “I’ve never seen any evidence of it myself, and I don’t want anything in depth. Just to find out if it’s true or not. Can you do that?”
“Absolutely,” Kris agreed. “Shouldn’t be too difficult. Just a records check. I’ll have it in your inbox by the end of the day.”
It didn’t even take that long. Barely an hour later her email chimed with the message she’d been waiting for. Her hand hovered over the tab. Why was she doing this? She already knew the answer… but it had been bugging her for all the years since he’d told her. There was not now and nor had there ever been any sign of a wife, so Dani had made up all kinds of scenarios in her mind.
Sucking in a breath and stabbing the key, she opened the file and felt her heart drop when she found a note from Kris with a copy of a marriage certificate. Her heart cried all over again as she read the report.
‘There is only one marriage on record for anyone with the name Zack Kincaid.’
With trembling fingers, Dani scrolled down the page.
While there was no evidence of Zack - her Zack - having any involvement with a woman of the same name, the certificate was proof that one Zack Kincaid had been married to an Emylyah Baskov by a justice of the peace just over eighteen years ago…
Tears pricked at her eyes and Dani blinked hard to contain them. Why was she so surprised? He’d admitted it, hadn’t he?
Except…
Her mind raced as she checked and rechecked the wedding date on the document. She didn’t know Zack’s date of birth. They hadn’t had that kind of relationship. But shedidknow his age. And eighteen years ago - over eighteen years ago - he would only have been…fifteen!Which must mean…this had to be another man’s marriage certificate.
The relief threatening to overwhelm her should have been a red flag, but before Dani could come to terms with it, another, stronger emotion bubbled up inside her.
Anger.
If that was the only marriage listed in the name of Zack Kincaid, and the certificate wasn’t his, that meant … He’dliedto her!
And that left yet another question. Why?
Dani had already known there was no obvious spouse in Zack’s orbit. Okay, so she admitted it. After they split up, she may have gotten a little stalkerish and scoured every magazine and newspaper article she could find. He’d been linked to other women, absolutely; the man was no saint. But certainly never awife, and neither was there even the smallest mention of anyone named Emylyah Bascov as far as Dani could recall. It wasn’t exactly a common name.
Then again, there was nothing tying him toher,either. But then, kink partners ormistressesweren’t the kind of women you paraded on your arm to grandiose functions. She knew that better than anyone.
But Dani had suspected, hadn’t she? She’d suspected he’d told her the lie that he was married because he’d wanted a sure-fire excuse to keep their relationship… what? It still didn’t make sense. Or did it? Maybe he’d assumed she’d be fine to continue as his mistress. Never expecting anything more from him, just like her mother had never expected more from her own sperm donor. Or maybe he really was just like her uncle with different women slotted into different categories, and kinky career women obviously weren’t the right kind of wife material. Likely too independent and headstrong. She’d seen it before. Kink was fine for a mistress or side piece. But not the stuff wives were made of.
Both Zio Lorenzo and her mother had always had a lot to say on that subject. Not that her mother could talk with the way she lived her life.
