He Wants An Open Marriage? Done!

"Did he just hang up on you?" Richard snapped, stepping back toward the desk with rapid strides. "I will make sure he rots in a prison cell for a very long time for this! That is a promise!" The veins in his neck bulged against his collar as his chest rose and fell in jagged breaths.

Roxanne kept her gaze fixed on the table, her mind racing at top speed to process every layer of the call. The silence of the large room pressed against her ears.

Richard crouched down beside her chair, resting a warm hand against the small of her back. "Are you alright?" he asked softly, his voice dropping into a gentle tone now.

Roxanne turned her head to look at him, her eyes tinged with red as she fought back the stubborn sting of tears. She forced her chin up.

"He doesn’t matter," she said, keeping her tone steady despite the heavy lump in her throat. "What matters is that he is completely wrong, and he will eat every single one of those vile words when he learns the truth."

"I agree," Richard murmured, his dark eyes searching her face. "But that does not give him the right to speak to you like that. Those are not words any man should say to someone he once claimed to care about."

Roxanne exhaled a sharp breath through her nose, shaking her head. "Well, I do not care about him or his twisted thoughts anymore. I am with you now, and we are having a child together," she said, placing her palm over his. "Besides, he actually gave us some very valuable information."

Richard’s brows furrowed in confusion. He stood up slowly and perched on the edge of the desk right in front of her, leaning in close. "What do you mean by that?"

Roxanne met his gaze and gave a firm nod. "He just gave us an accurate picture of what people are thinking right now."

Richard narrowed his eyes, his sharp mind connecting the dots. "You think that means people actually believe Cara’s ridiculous story?"

"Exactly, Richard," Roxanne said, her voice turning cold and sharp. "He just proved that there are public figures who buy into her narrative. Her wild lies are slowly taking root in the minds of outsiders."

Richard gave a dismissive nod. "I couldn’t care less what the rest of the world chooses to believe," he said firmly, reaching out to cup her cheek with his thumb. "My only priority is you, and how this stress is affecting you and our unborn child."

A small smile curled the corners of Roxanne’s lips as she looked down at his large hand shifting down to rest gently against her lower belly. "We still need to move much faster than we are right now," she insisted, wrapping her fingers over his. "We cannot let Cara’s fake narrative build momentum or let her believe that she can win this war."

"Cara is free to run her mouth to anyone who will listen," Richard said, his jaw tightening into a hard square. "But when we are through with her, she will realize that trying to destroy your life was the fatal mistake."

Roxanne let out a slow breath and opened her mouth to reply, but the sudden vibration of a phone against the table cut her off. A metallic buzzing echoed through the quiet office once again. Her eyes instinctively dropped to her own phone, which lay completely black and still on the corner of the desk.

She looked up at Richard in confusion. "It isn’t mine this time," she said, her voice calm.

Richard nodded, turning around to grab his phone from the leather charging pad. He tapped the glowing screen, and his eyebrows pulled together into a deep furrow. "It is my mother," he announced, his tone instantly shifting into caution.

Roxanne’s heart skipped a beat, her stomach tightening with a sudden chill. "That cannot be good news," she murmured, her voice dropping low.

Richard exhaled a heavy breath and swiped the screen to answer. He walked toward the floor-to-ceiling window, pacing slowly while Roxanne watched his back, her eyes narrowed into focused slits.

"Hello, Mother," he said, his opening tone laced with clear skepticism. He stopped pacing and listened, a long pause stretching between them. "You want me to come to the villa this evening? Why, Mother? What is going on over there?"

Another long silence filled the line as he listened to Margaret’s sharp voice over the receiver. His gaze remained fixed on the sprawling city skyline outside the tinted glass. He gave a stiff nod. Then, his head snapped around to face Roxanne, his brow pulled tight with concern.

Roxanne’s eyes narrowed even further as she tried to read the subtle shifts in his expression. Whatever his mother was telling him, it was significant. Yet, she maintained a calm posture, keeping her hands resting neatly in her lap.

Richard would tell her everything the moment the call ended.

"But Mo—" Richard started, only to be cut off as a sharp tone signaled the line disconnecting. He pulled the phone away from his ear, staring at the blank screen for a second before setting it down on the desk with a soft click.

"What happened?" Roxanne asked, leaning forward in her chair.

"My mother insists that we go to the villa this evening," Richard said, giving a baffled shrug of his shoulders.

"Us?" Roxanne asked. Why would Margaret summon us now?

Richard nodded cleanly. "Yes, Roxanne. Us," he confirmed. "She explicitly stated that I must bring you along with me."

Roxanne’s gaze drifted to the tabletop, her mind working through the possibilities. Margaret was demanding her presence at the family estate? That was entirely out of character for the strict matriarch.

She looked back up at Richard. "Did she give a reason for the sudden invitation?"

Richard shook his head. "She refused to say more," he admitted. "I suppose we will only find out what she is planning once we get there."

Roxanne gave a slow nod, a sudden suspicion dawning in her mind. Her brow furrowed again. "What if Cara is already waiting there for us? What if that is the real reason she summoned us?"

"After the public scene Cara just caused outside this building?" Richard shook his head with absolute conviction. "My mother values our family reputation above everything else. She would never invite that circus into her home."

"We cannot be completely certain of that, Richard," Roxanne pointed out softly. "Your mother and Cara have a very unique dynamic."

Richard nodded in reluctant acknowledgment, his shoulders dropping a fraction. "Regardless of who is sitting in that room, we will face it in a few hours, and we will handle it together as a team."

Roxanne nodded slowly. A sudden, daring thought crossed her mind, and the tension in her chest began to give way to something sharp and calculated. A tiny smile touched the corners of her lips. "Well, if we do end up running into Cara at the villa, that actually makes this sudden meeting even better for us."

Richard’s brows pinched together instantly, a look of genuine confusion crossing his face. "I thought we were trying to avoid her drama?" he asked. "Why on earth would seeing her at my mother’s house make anything better?"

Roxanne’s smile deepened as the pieces began falling into place.

If Cara really was planning to use the pregnancy scandal to destroy her, then Margaret’s villa might be the worst place for Cara to make her next move. Or perhaps the best.

Because if Cara was going to walk into a trap, Roxanne had no intention of stopping her.

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