I Became the Billionaire's Fake Lover to Get My Revenge

"I’m surprised to hear from you after all this time," Anna remarked as she stepped into the private room of the Blue Velvet restaurant and joined Constantine at his secluded table. Her eyes swept across the dimly lit, elegantly decorated space. "And this secrecy..." she added, lowering her voice as she took her seat, "do we really need to meet in such private conditions?"

Constantine offered her a charming grin as he uncorked a bottle of red wine and poured her a generous glass, sliding it gently across the table.

"Yes," he said, his tone calm but deliberate. "I thought it best to have this conversation in complete privacy—no interruptions, no ears that shouldn’t hear."

A flicker of unease passed through Anna. Her body tensed, and she rubbed her palms discreetly against her skirt, feeling the faint trace of sweat. There was something unsettling about the way he said it—something that made her worry that whatever he wanted to say might not bode well for her.

"Alright..." she replied, forcing a thin, polite smile. "What is it you wanted to talk about?"

"You know," Constantine began, a peculiar smile tugging at the corner of his lips, "when I met Marienne Rochester and learned that the two of you were friends, I found it... curious. Surprising, even. I hadn’t heard much about her before, but once I started looking into her background, let’s just say my suspicions about your sudden friendship only grew stronger."

Anna raised an eyebrow, her expression a mix of amusement and guarded curiosity. "Really? And why is that?"

He leaned back slightly, as if settling in for a story. "It’s her connection to the Hydes that made me wonder about the nature of your relationship. She’s engaged to Robert Hyde, isn’t she? The same man who announced his new engagement barely a week after his wife passed away. That kind of haste—it tells you something about a person’s character, don’t you think?"

Anna’s composure faltered for a brief moment. Every time someone mentioned that death—her death—the pain surged through her like a wave crashing against jagged rocks. It never came gently. It always brought with it the storm of memories she fought so hard to bury.

This time, however, Anna managed to recover quickly. Her curiosity had been piqued, and despite the strange tension in the air, she was determined to find out exactly where this conversation was heading.

"Well, I’m not exactly familiar with—"