She couldn’t believe her eyes… Those photos were… She closed her eyes and felt like she was about to throw up. Norah Wilde opened her mouth and took a deep breath. Her heart had begun slamming inside her rib cage the moment she had recognized herself. “Oh, God… How is this possible?” she murmured, feeling her entire world crashing down around her. Norah looked from the screen to Ivana Rossi, the public relations manager for ‘Gritti International Bank’, then back to the screen.“‘Questa è lei, non è così?’ (This is you, isn’t it?)” Ivana prodded in Italian. ‘What the hell is going on here? And she’s talking in Italian… Why?’ Her brain was having a hard time understanding… finding the right words to create a phrase… to give these people a logical explanation of what she was seeing on that damn screen. Cold sweat coated her skin. Air wouldn’t squeeze past her locked throat, let alone words. Yes, that woman in those photos was her.

His gaze delved into her culpable one. She couldn’t hide the turmoil and resentment coursing through her at being put on the spot.“I am innocent and I’m absolutely sure you can prove it without roaming inside my phone as if you’re entitled to do so. My privacy has been invaded enough for one day, signor Gritti. Don’t you agree?” She was naked… On the internet. Norah supposed everyone in the building was staring at her image right now. Men saying filthy, nasty things about her, about every single part of her body… imagining doing dirty things to her… Women judging whether her stomach was flat enough, saying she had cellulite, calling her too bony or too tall or too something so they could feel better about their own body issues… Calling her a whore even… All Norah wanted was to hang her head and sob. All she could think was how hard she’d worked not to be pushed around by life the way her mother had been. At every stage, she’d tried to be self-re

“At this point, it’s my word against theirs… And we all know who you and everybody else are going to believe…” she said slowly in a defeated tone and sat on a chair. “I’m absolutely sure that nothing I might say or do might save my reputation when I have to fight against people with money and prestige.” Tears started falling down her cheek, but Norah wiped them off with the back of her hand. No one must see her crying, not Phillip Weldon, not Fabio Sensi, and, definitely, not Leone Gritti. “I tried to play by the rules, but in the end, I’ve lost anyway,” she continued this time talking more to herself than to Leone. “My image is trashed all over social media, my reputation is torn… All I’ve worked for so hard and sacrificed so much is vanished into thin air. All I’ve dreamed to achieve is not possible anymore… What am I going to do now?” Without saying a word to her or in general, Leone plucked his white handkerchief from his jacket pocket and moved to damp

“And there you have it… I’m a freaking star… Everybody over the Atlantic knows now about this whole mess,” Norah muttered squeezing the phone, cringing again.          It was afternoon here. Freddie would be starting his day in New York, and the fact that he’d learned so quickly of the photos told her exactly how broadly these things were being distributed.          Maybe reporters had tracked down the family connection and were harassing him and David?          ‘Damn you, Phillip Weldon!’           His headline name was turning her into a punch line. She set her phone on the table, unable to think of anything to say except ‘I’m sorry’, and that was far from being enough.“I&rs

“Being nice has nothing to do with it, Norah. The photos have nothing to do with what I just said. I stated the truth. You are an extremely beautiful woman,” Leone went on, trying not to pay attention to her sarcasm. “I’m sure a lot of men told you that.”“What is this? Is it another sarcastic line in the ‘How to kick Norah while she’s still bruised and broken’ chapter?” Norah asked, then her mouth pouted in consternation. Leone gazed at her lips. They trembled for a moment before she stopped them. Was she really that innocent? Was she really that unaware of how gorgeous she was? It struck Leone that she didn’t know he was extremely attracted to her. He would have laughed if he hadn’t been so stunned. Phillip Weldon himself chose her for that trait… He didn’t need an intelligent woman… “Norah…” he said and took a half step towards her. But he stopped when saw her frightened and a bit confused.“Could you stop playing this flirting ga