Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop

Author:Barbara Dunlop [Dunlop, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2021-05-25T00:00:00+00:00

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* * *

Mia didn’t like to fixate on her trials and tribulations. They were what they were, and she was mostly a lucky person.

But Silas kept probing, and for the first time in forever she actually wanted to expand on her problems. It might have been the wine, or it might have been the brandy, or it might have been something about Silas himself. It was hard to know for sure.

“Gold-diggers are a dime a dozen,” he was saying. “I mean, that’s not a perfect metaphor . . . but you know what I mean.”

From across the villa’s round dining table, she couldn’t help but smile as he fumbled his way through consoling her. She rephrased for him. “You’re asking why that woman resented me in particular.”

“In a nutshell, yes. It’s not a crime to marry for money. Not that I’m saying you married for money. I don’t think that at all.”

Mia chose a mini cream strawberry tart from the oblong silver plate that was set beside the wildflower bouquet. The meal had helped soothe her emotions.

“I’d guess it’s because I’ve been more thoroughly vilified than your average gold-digger,” she answered.

“Vilified how?”

“They’ve called me everything from trophy wife to jezebel and a murderer.”

“Murderer?”

She responded in a mocking tone. “You don’t think a fifty-year-old man spontaneously died on his own, do you?”

“You said he had a heart condition.”

“A likely story.” She took a bite of the tart. It was as delicious as everything else had been. The pastry was flaky and the vanilla cream sweet and smooth.

Silas considered for a moment. “Wouldn’t there be records?”

She set the rest of the tart on her side plate. “I’m not about to release Alastair’s medical records.”

“I meant police records. If there was a murder investigation, there’d have to be a police record.”

“Unless I was clever enough to get away scot-free.”

“With murder? That’s a stretch.”

“You’d be amazed how many people believe I did. You’d be even more amazed by how many threaten revenge.”

His gaze narrowed on that. “Revenge?”

“Some want me impoverished. Some want me jailed.” She crumbled an edge of the pastry with her index finger. “Some want me killed. And some have suggested very colorful ways they would do it themselves.” She caught Silas’s expression and immediately regretted her words. She hadn’t intended to be so graphic.

“That’s why you’re in Alaska.” His tone had hardened. “You had death threats.”

She was in the thick of it now and decided there was no point in holding back. “It was either hire round-the-clock security or get out of town. And there were these protesters at the end of our driveway. A tenacious group of about twenty of them with signs and cameras; reporters too.” She shuddered, remembering. “You’d think people would have lives.”

Silas reached across the table to hold her hand again. Crumbs clung to her fingertip, but he didn’t seem to notice. Then, without letting go, he rose and moved around to her.

It was just a touch, she told herself, no more than a handshake, really.

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