They didn't go to back home. Betsy sat in painful silence as Nick expertly guided the car through the streets on London, his mouth firmly closed as he focused on the road ahead. He didn't say where they were going. Betsy wasn't sure if he even knew where he was taking them. He just kept taking random turns with no real destination in mind. Betsy was almost certain they passed the same shops and signs several times but eventually they seemed to move further from the centre of the capital. All of this without a single word from Nick. She almost would have preferred to have the radio on to at least cut though this painful tension.

Unable to take the silence any longer, Betsy murmured, "Did you want to talk as you drive?"

Nick deftly indicated and took a turn, a different one this time. Still, he did not speak. Betsy suddenly felt restricted and confined, the seat belt almost suffocating as it held her in place. She wanted to be anywhere but in this car. She crossed her legs and then uncrossed them. She knotted her hands into the skirt of her dress and then released her grip when she realised she would crease the fabric.

Waiting for Nick to decide it was the right time to speak was the worst part of this. Knowing there was a secret he needed to confess and being forced to wait to hear it made her feel restless. Betsy longed to be out in the open, even if it rain was hammering down against the roof of the car, so she could try and burn off some of the energy by pacing. Pacing sounded good.

It took another half an hour of silence before the car steered off of a main highway and into a car park. The bright yellow M glowing even through the sheets of rain brought no comfort. They may as well have been in the middle of nowhere, in complete impenetrable darkness, for all the difference it made.

The location of their talk didn't matter.

All that mattered to her right there was the fear which held her captive. Her heart was thundering in her chest and she felt queasy as she waited for him to speak. She was overthinking it, there was no way to deny that, but until he finally told her what was happening she was always going to predict the worst. How could she not?

"I don't even know where to begin," Nick whispered into the silence of the car.

She jolted around in her seat, the abrupt movement causing the safety belt to lock into place. She fumbled for the catch as her wide eyes locked on to the side of Nick's face. His features were cast in shadows, hiding his emotions from her gaze. And yet she could see the way he held himself stiffly, the way his head was bowed as she kept his gaze averted.

Hands blindly reaching for the button to release the seat belt, Betsy drew in a deep breath as she was freed. Then she turned so her back was pressed against the door, her entire being focused entirely on the man whom she had been kissing just hours before. It felt like days had passed since those carefree moments.

"How about you start at the beginning? That's always the best place to start." Betsy replied, her voice calm even though inside she felt far from it.

Nick tightened his hands around the steering wheel and nodded his head. "Right. The beginning." He cleared his throat loudly, his gaze focused at the darkness beyond. "Do you remember the day you came to work for me? Do you remember how angry I was? You, my little blonde pixie, turned up unexpectedly. I've never been good with surprises. Surprises usually lead to bad things. Except for you." He tried to smile but it slipped from his lips a few seconds later.

"I can't say that it's my favourite moment...meeting you. You were rather rude." Betsy replied stiffly. She folded her arms over her chest as she waited for him to continue speaking.

Nick cleared his throat loudly and glanced away. "As I said, I don't enjoy surprises. I like to be in control. So, normally before people start employment with me, I carry out an extensive background check."

"I can understand that. You want to keep your family safe."

Nick breathed out. "So you understand."

"I understand why you carried out the background check. Everyone undertakes a Criminal Record checks when they start a job working with children. It's pretty understandable." Betsy stated, before glaring at the side of his head. "But I am not an idiot. If it was simply a CRB check, you wouldn't be this worried. So what information did you collect on me?"

Nick shifted in his seat. It would have been a novelty in any other situation to see the man so unsettled. It offered little comfort however when he was avoiding her gaze.

"What information did you collect?" Betsy asked again when no answer was forthcoming. "Nicholas, answer me."

"Everything." Nick sighed, slowly turning his head towards her. "My security have experience in intelligence. I am a very suspicious man who has been burned in the past. Anything they could possibly find out about you, they obtained."

Betsy nodded her head stiffly. It felt her heart was thumping out the beat to the hard core rave music her roommate had enjoyed at university. The fear she felt wasn't due to there being multiple skeletons in her closet. It wasn't that she had some great big secret waiting to be discovered. Yet it was still her life that was going to be splashed all over the papers.

"So it will have information about my marriage and my divorce? It will have information about my Peter?" She asked calmly, though inside she was felt anything but calm.

"Yes, and a lot more. My security team are very thorough."

Betsy nodded her head before folding her arms across chest. She was reeling with this knowledge and she was grateful she was seated as another thought occurred to her. "So our getting to know each other was a lie." She stated, hating the way her voice cracked over the words. "I spilled my secrets to you, I placed my trust in you, and yet you knew them already."

"No!" Nick protested, releasing his death grip on the steering wheel. He placed his hands on her arms and ducked his head so that he could see into her eyes. "It was never like that. My team gave me the envelope and I carried it everywhere with me for months. But I never looked. Not once. It felt wrong to do that to you. I wanted to get to know you, the real you."

Through the darkness, Betsy watched every twitch and every line that formed on his face as he spoke. The man was usually a closed book when it came to emotions but in the dark, with just her for company, she could read every emotion that raced across his features.

"I believe you. I believe that you haven't looked at it."

Nick slumped back into his seat as his lips pulled up into a small smile. "I –."

"Don't get ahead of yourself, Nicholas. I said I believed you, that doesn't mean I understand all of this. If you didn't intend to look at the information, what did you do with it? And more importantly how did it get in the hands of someone else?"

"Your file was stolen from my office. I had carried it around with me for weeks, maybe even months, but then I thought it would be better to keep it somewhere safe to avoid it getting into someone else's hands." Nick gave a bitter laugh. "I know. Typical. I try to keep something in the safe and by doing so I made it more accessible to the thief. It should have been secure. We have key cards and security guards on the main entrance. It should have been safe there, safer than it would have been in my suitcase. At least that was what I thought."

Nick lapsed into silence. Betsy didn't need to be a mind reader to know Nick was berating himself for this. He had done everything in his power to control the situation, to protect the file as he decided was best. It must be uncomfortable for him to know that he was wrong – again.

"When did this happen? When did you first become aware my information had been stolen?" Betsy asked softly. "And don't try to lie to me. You weren't surprised when your brother said someone had approached him."

"He's not my brother!" Nick retorted on instinct before halting himself . He drew in a breath before he continued. "And the break in occurred several weeks ago. Do you remember when we went to view the schools? I got a call as we were leaving."

Betsy held up her hand and glared at him. "Wait a minute. Are you being serious?" She shook her head and clenched her hands into fists. "You've known since that day, which was weeks ago, that someone had stolen my personal information? And you've waited until now, when your back was forced up against the wall, to tell me the truth."

Nick opened and closed his mouth several times. "It wasn't like that. When it first happened, I thought we would be able to apprehend the culprit and claim back the missing documents quickly. I didn't think that they would be this elusive." He reached out and pulled her arms away from her chest so that he could hold both of her hands. He squeezed them gently, ducking his head so that he could meet her gaze. "I didn't want to worry you. I wanted to keep you safe."

Betsy pulled her hands away, her head turning so that she was looking at the window. The anxiety which had felt consuming before, to be replaced with a small flicker of anger which started to grow as each second passed.

"Betsy? Look at me, please." Nick pleaded, his hands moving as if to touch her but falling back to his sides.

"I love you Nicholas, I really do."

"I love you too Betsy."

"But, your overbearing need to be in control is stifling. I mean, come on Nicholas. Did you even think about the consequences of this other than how it would affect you?" Betsy slapped her hand against the dashboard and set a glare upon him. "Did you not think about how it will affect everyone else if this information go out? I love you but right now I don't like you very much."

"Betsy, I'm sorry."

"Sorry just isn't good enough in this situation Nick. If my personal life gets dragged into the papers it will be my friends, my family, their children, and even my ex-husband who will suffer. Did you think about that?" Betsy shook her head and swiped at the angry tears that dripped down on to her cheeks. "No, of course you didn't. Well, I'm not like you Nick. I chose you and I accepted the consequences of that. I knew I would be opening myself up to scrutiny but you have made it that much easier."

"I didn't mean for it to happen."

"I know you didn't. I know in your own way you were just trying to do the right thing." She sighed sadly. "But by waiting until now to tell me, you've taken away the chance for me to warn my family and friends. This could be all over the papers tomorrow and I haven't warned any of them."

"I'll get the lawyers on this." Nick stated, pulling his shoulder back and his chin lifted as he attempted to take charge.

She shook her head. "No, what you will do is take me home. If someone is going to threaten to expose my information, we need to do damage control. We need to ensure it is released in a way that will impact my family and friends the least but remove the threat hanging over us." Betsy reached up and grasped the safety belt, pulling it across her body and securing it into place. "Take me home now Nicholas. And I want a copy of that file. I want to know exactly what this person is threatening to expose."

She sat there, her gaze staring resolutely out of the windscreen as she waited for him to start the car. Betsy pressed her lips together to stop anything else from escaping her lips. Her entire body was trembling, anger and worst of all, betrayal, flooded through her veins. She could take the hits, but she was not okay with him putting her family at risk.

With a loud sigh, Nick started the engine. It purred to life, his hands resting on the steering when as he bowed his head. "Are you ever going to forgive me for this?"

The blonde glanced down at her beautiful dress, the one which had made her feel incredible only hours before, which only served as a reminder of how of course the evening had gone of course.

"I don't know Nick. All I know is I need to be angry with you right now."

In response, Nick nodded his head stiffly and put the car into gear. As the wound their way through the dark streets, the scent of Nick's aftershave tickling her nose, Betsy's body ached with the need to soothe the rift she could feel forming between them. Yet she couldn't. And she wouldn't. He had hidden things from her and put her friends and family at risk. She deserved to be angry at him, even if it felt like she was punishing herself by doing it.