“You could drop the last part now and just use Hall and the acronym HERA would still be applicable.”
“I’ve thought of it.”
“But not acted on it.”
“Not yet.”
“Is he still your husband?”
“We were never married,” she dismissed harshly.
“But you were…romantically involved?”
She was so tense, she looked as if she might break in two. “Yes.”
“Are you still?”
“No.”
“That ended too?”
“Yes.”
“Amicably?”
Her gaze was scathing. “Does anything about the way I look or the way I’m answering you give the impression that any of that situation ended amicably?”
From Ellie’s bleak expression, it looked to Knox as if Andrew Day had betrayed this woman on several levels. He could be wrong, of course, but somehow he didn’t think he was.
“Why didn’t the two of you get married?”
Her mouth twisted. “Andrew said it was an outdated institution forced on couples by people with equally antiquated beliefs.”
“And do you think that too?”
Her brow creased in an impatient frown. “I’m pretty sure that your own bio said you aren’t married either,” she accused rather than answered.
“And I believe I told you that whoever wrote the bio obviously doesn’t know everything about me.”
Ellie eyed him curiously. “Meaning?”
“Meaning I was married.”
“But you aren’t any longer?”
“No.” Before Knox could add anything else, a young woman who looked slightly familiar—Sally?—with short red hair and deep green eyes, appeared in the doorway carrying a coffee cup with the logo of the popular franchise down the street.
She was also carrying his dry cleaning in her other hand.
“This is Sally,” Ellie confirmed, obviously relieved at this timely diversion from their previous conversation. “With your agreement, Sally has offered to stand in as your full-time PA until Karen returns.”
“Offered or been coerced into it?”
Ellie felt her cheeks warm. “I ask, Mr. Wilder. I don’t coerce.”
“Knox will do,” he dismissed. “And what are you going to do for a PA during that time?”
“Wynter Security is a long-standing client of ours.”
