“Mr. Walsh, with all due respect, I don’t understand why you gave us an F,” Josh starts.

Alistair leans forward and laces his fingers together. “What grade should I have given you for a blank Word document?”

“What?”

Alistair turns his laptop screen toward us and shows an empty page where our assignment should have been.

Josh shakes his head. “There must be a glitch in the system. I uploaded a ten-page assignment last night. I swear.”

Alistair frowns, and maybe I catch a flash of guilt in his eyes. I watch him through slits. So it did cross his mind that there could have been a technical error, and he still chose to give us an F. That’s fucked up, and I can’t keep my mouth shut any longer.

“I’m surprised you were so quick to fail us when it was obviously a system failure. Why would anyone submit a blank document?” I say.

“Someone who didn’t finish the assignment in time and was hoping to blame a glitch in the system.”

“Dio Santo.” I throw my hands up in the air. “That’s ludicrous. Josh and I would never do something like that. How about innocent until proven guilty?”

“Miss Moretti, you’ll soon find out that’s the biggest lie ever told.”

I openly glare at him. “I guess you should know all about lies and deception.”

A vein on Alistair’s forehead throbs as his eyes narrow.

Good. I managed to hit a nerve.

Josh, the poor thing, glances between Alistair and me without a clue of what’s going on now. He must have sensed the sudden tension in the air though.

“Mr. Walsh, I swear that’s not the case. I can show you the date the final file was saved,” he says.

Alistair breaks the staring contest with me and turns his attention to Josh. “I suppose I could give you the benefit of the doubt. Send me the assignment as an attachment, and I’ll grade it accordingly. But this is the only time I’ll make an exception, system failure or not.”

“Thank you, Mr. Walsh,” Josh replies, clearly relieved.

I can’t say the same.

I walk out of the classroom with Josh, still seething from the exchange with Alistair. A minute later, I hear a ping on my phone. A notification is flashing on my screen saying I have a new email from—gasp—Mr. Walsh. My heart is hammering inside my chest when I stop in the middle of the hallway to open the email. There’s no subject line, and the body of the message only has one line: Meet at my office in five minutes.

What a jackass. Does he think my world revolves around him?

I’m tempted to blow him off, but the opportunity to yell at him is too good to pass up.

19

Alistair

The moment I send the email to Chiara, I know I’ve made a mistake. I can’t be trusted alone with her, but I have to know why she was giving me a death stare throughout the entire lecture. Sure, it could be solely related to the F I gave her, but her little speech about lies and deception had nothing to do with the assignment.

I leave the door to my office open on purpose and try to keep myself occupied. Five minutes never took so long to pass. It’s possible she’ll ignore my email or not see it at all, which doesn’t make the wait any better.

I’m staring at my PhD diploma hanging on the wall, the one I never thought I’d receive, when a knock comes at my door, making my heartbeat kick up a notch.

“Miss Moretti. I’m glad you could make it.”

She closes the door behind her with a soft click. I should ask her to leave it open, but my tongue gets stuck in my mouth. Shit. Chiara stays rooted to the spot, watching me with an indecipherable glint in her eyes.

“Why don’t you take a seat?”

“I’m fine standing.”

She’s not mad—she’s furious.

I stand up and walk around my desk, something I shouldn’t be doing. I have to keep the distance between us. Just being in the same room alone with her is already wrecking my resolve to remain detached.

“I sense you have something you’d like to get off your chest. Come on, let’s get on with it,” I say.

“You failed Josh and me on purpose.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Don’t you dare lie to me, Alistair. Even if you suspected we were trying to be sneaky, you could have given us the benefit of the doubt and asked us to resubmit the assignment.”

She has me there.

“You’re right. I should have done that, but I already rectified my mistake. Anything else you would like to say to me?” I take a step closer because I can’t help myself.

She stares at me with such fury that I’m afraid to know what I did to get her so pissed off.

“You. Are. Married,” she finally says in a strained breath while punctuating each word.

Ah fuck. I should have known she would find out about Nadine eventually.

“I’m separated.”

“But you’re still legally married.”

“Yes, but not for much longer.” I move closer, and Chiara takes a step back, lowering her gaze to my chest.

“It doesn’t matter. You slept with me while you were still married. You cheated on your wife with me.”

The fire is gone from her voice. She sounds hurt, and I hate that I’m the cause.

“Would it have made a difference if I had told you then?”

“Yes. No. I don’t know.”

Standing in front of her now, I place a finger under her chin, bringing her face up so I can look into her eyes. There’s defiance in them mixed with raw vulnerability. My gut twists.

“Chiara, I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to ruin our time together. Yes, I’m still legally married, but I haven’t felt bound to Nadine for a very long time, even before she cheated on me.”