Page 103 of Fake Dating Mr. Prince

My throat tightened, and pain lanced through me at her words.

“Show him what?” Roni piped up when I didn’t respond.

Stella pulled her phone out of her purse. She unlocked the screen and scrolled through until she found what she was looking for.

With a nasty look at me, she leaned over and handed the phone to Roni. “This. Ash had nothing to do with the stolen designs. My mother had someone else do it.”

Roni zoomed in on the message, her lips pursed. After a minute, she lifted her head to look at me. “Do you know Simone Hunter?”

My eyes darted to Roni. “She’s my ex. Why?”

“It appears she emailed Elaine Tremaine to let her know she got the designs she wanted.”

“What? Let me see.” Roni handed me the phone.

Sure enough, it was all there. Bile threatened at the back of my throat. Once again, Simone had caused me pain. She’d promised I’d regret not choosing her. And now she’d made sure of it.

“The night of the charity event at the mansion last Friday,” I told Roni. “Can you grab the security footage from that night around 7:30 p.m? I thought I’d locked my door, but when I walked back into my office, she was here. I was supposed to leave earlier that night but got hung up with work.”

Roni tapped a few keys and pulled up the footage. “Son of a bitch! That fucker!”

I’d assumed she meant Simone until she turned her computer to face me. On the paused screen, I saw one of our security guards unlocking the door and letting Simone into my office.

“He’s no longer employed,” Roni said, fury laced each word.

“IknewI’d locked my door that night.”

Roni nodded and pressed play. I could tell by the set of her lips she wasn’t going to make it easy for the man on her team. She ran a tight ship and this type of behavior happening on her watch was not to be ignored.

We watched Simone walk into the office after the guard hurriedly walked away. Even though you couldn’t see my whole office, I noticed her fumbling with my file cabinet and sliding open the drawer. The camera wasn’t angled enough to see what she grabbed, but I’d guessed she scanned the designs or took pictures of them.

Within a few minutes, we saw her quickly shut the drawer, move out of the frame toward my desk, and then run and leap onto the couch I’d found her on.

In the next frame, we saw me exit the bathroom. “You can stop it.”

Shit! What have I done?I’d been so focused on my past pain that I let myself believe the worst and I pushed Ashlyn away. For the first time, I’d had someone like me for me. And I hadn’t even recognized it. I was too busy protecting my heart that I didn’t even listen to her pleas.

I turned to Stella. “I—please tell Ashlyn I’m sorry for not believing her.”

Stella sighed, and softened her expression. “Ashlyn’s downstairs waiting in the car. You can tell her yourself. She at least deserves that much.”

“I know she does.”

Stella stood and took a few steps toward the door. “Well, come on then.”

The pain I felt at what I’d done consumed me. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean you can’t?" She stomped back over to me, her pointer finger jabbed at my chest. “Just get up and move your damn feet.”

“I need to take care of this, Stella.” I knew she didn’t understand by the look of disbelief that crossed her face.

“So cleaning up this mess is more important than giving her a little respect. That’s nice, Dean.” Her sarcasm made me flinch. Stella stalked to the door of my office and flung it open.

“It’s not like that.” I called after her.

She never looked back.

I couldn’t face Ashlyn. Not until I made sure that no one else suspected her, and it was proven that Simone was the one who did this.