Fake-Married to My Billionaire Boss

Chapter 58 : Post Mortem

"You're not just humoring me, are you?"

"No." I reach up to finger his necktie. "I thought I'd leave that for later tonight. You don't mind if we skip dinner, do you? We could give the staff the rest of the night off. It will be just the two of us."

Holy hell. Did I just say that? Flirting with one's husband is entirely normal but it's not something I remember ever doing before. Raul always did the flirting for the both of us.

This is a side of me that I never thought I had.

I think I like it.

Raul, meanwhile, is quiet. Then he gets a sheepish look on his face.

I raise my eyebrow in question. "What?" I ask.

***

Raul

"Thanks for inviting us to dinner, Kate," Gigi says. She follows Tina through the narrow hallway leading from the front door. "I'm starving."

"You're welcome," Kate says, smiling. Then she turns to give me a pointed look.

Sorry, I mouthed silently. Out loud, I say, "We thought it would be nice to have a meal together, and having it here will give us some privacy."

"I need a drink," Tina says, her tone weary.

"You can have as many as you want." I beam at her as I led them up to the second floor. "You did great tonight, Tina."

"Not getting sloshed tonight, hijo. I have to be at my granddaughter's ballet recital tomorrow. Whisky, please."

"I'll get it," Marcus says.

Hayden Sandoval, the private chef who occasionally cooks for us, made palomilla and Kate's favorite seafood paella. He starts us off with ceviche and soup, served with mango margaritas.

Gigi sighs happily after her first sip of the cocktail. "God, I needed this," she says. "So I spoke to Basilio today. I was right about the rumors of corporate espionage."

"That was Bianca too," I say.

She nods. "It was mostly Saldana working under her directions."

"So it wasn't true," Marcus says.

"No. But apart from trying to make everyone in the company nervous, Bianca was also trying to get her hands on Basilio's new formula, probably thought she'd broker the sale of it to another company as a backup plan in case she couldn't get the board to fire you the first time."

"To what end?" Tina says, perplexed. "She'd just be sabotaging the company."

"Yes, but she'd also sabotage Raul's biggest project ever. Genius boy over here—" She grins at me. "—insisted on putting off filing any chemical patents and just keeping it all a secret. Well, the most important parts of the process, at least. I suspect the plan was that whoever she sold it to would file the patents themselves and we wouldn't be able to use it anymore."

"I keep telling you it's stupidly risky," Marcus mutters.

"Thanks, bro," I say. "That is your job."

"But then Raul gets married, and the board is happy," Gigi says, smiling and raising her drink toward Kate. "Before Bianca gets the formula, Saldana loses his nerve and sells me all his shares of the company. He wanted out."

"Is that why she had him killed?" Kate says.

"Probably didn't want him running around knowing what he did about what she was doing behind your back. No one would suspect Olivia because she had no motive. She was going to be Bianca's inside woman, but then you caught her drugging you."

Gigi doesn't spell it out, but we all came to the same conclusion. Olivia was supposed to seduce me so I would take her in my confidence. If that didn't work, the scandal of me having an affair less than a year into my marriage would be enough to get me fired. People who ran companies have affairs all the time, but not many of them have two aunts on the board of directors. I've often joked about Tia Sylvia and Tia Carmen liking Kate more than they did me, but I've been even more convinced of it since I married Kate.

Not that I blame them. My wife is wonderful. I knew that even when she was working for me.

I look at her sitting across the dinner table from me, suddenly regretting having invited guests over. She looks so sad at the memory of Saldana. This is the worse dinner conversation ever. But we're all still reeling from the events of the past several days. Talking about it can only be a good thing.

Kate suddenly looks at me with a thoughtful expression. I know that look, it's one that tells me she just figured something out.

I raise my eyebrows. What is it?

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Thank you for reading! If you enjoyed this chapter, please vote by clicking on the star icon! Next update (Chapter 59 "One of Their Own") will be on Sunday, 28 April 2024.

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