The Italian Billionaire’s Nubian Queen

“What? Adam? And you? But he loves you. He’s loved you for years. Forever. He adores you. You love him. You’ve had your eye on him ever since senior year of high school, when he came to visit his aunt and you caught a glimpse of him! You can’t be having trouble.”

“We are, all right?” snapped Brianna. “I don’t need you to make me feel worse about it. This is why I didn’t tell you. I didn’t want to tell you. I don’t want all of this judgment.”

Alyssa bit her tongue good and hard.

“Okay. All right, I’m sorry. Bree, I am sorry, I was just surprised. Do you want to tell me what kind of trouble? It’s okay if you don’t. I’m here for you. Just let me know what you need, and I’m here for you.”

“Oh, so now you can respect my space.”

“I’m sorry, Bree.”

There was silence for a moment.

“I don’t know how it all happened but it… I think Adam is having an affair, Aly. I think he’s having an affair with his secretary! I tried snooping but I…”

“You’ve always been completely terrible at snooping.”

“I guess so,” admitted Brianna, looking utterly dispirited. “So I asked him.”

“What?”

“I just asked him.”

“Asked?”

“All right, I accused him of sleeping with his secretary. No, his personal assistant. Different from a secretary. Or so they say.”

“Wow, catty. Sorry, Bree. Sorry, that’s… What did he say?”

“He didn’t deny it. He just called me crazy.”

That put Alyssa’s hackles up. Nobody called her sister crazy except her!

“So then what?”

“He left on a business trip. With her.”

“Seriously?”

Alyssa thanked her stars that she wasn’t involved with anybody and set that aside. This was about her sister, not her.

“Seriously. He just left. He didn’t deny it, Aly. He just didn’t deny it. He called me crazy and he left.”

“Bree, I’m not trying to say you’re crazy at all, but why do you think he’s having an affair with his secretary? Personal assistant, I mean.”

“I’d prefer to just call her the man-stealing sl*t, but I don’t think that’s a job description.”

“Ouch.”

“There have been… secrets. There were days when he said he had client meetings late in the evening, and he’d come home and be on the phone afterwards.”

Alyssa considered that.

“How does that point to an affair with the PA?”

“I just know it. She’s been calling him all the time. And he changed his phone codes! He changed his passwords! We’ve always known each other’s passwords. Why would he do that if he wasn’t keeping secrets from me?”

“I… Did you ask him for the passwords?”

“I couldn’t. He accused me of being crazy and snooping and he left.”

“Oh.”

“We were going to have a baby. We’d finally decided to try.”

“What? Bree, that’s… Oh.”

“We’re obviously not going to anymore. He’s cheating on me.”

“Bree, maybe you’re jumping to conclusions.”

“Aly, do you have any idea how humiliating it is to be treated like that? I sit at home every evening waiting for him and he shuts me out of everything that goes on at work. He says he doesn’t want to bring work home. But he stays at work more and more. He lives at work more than he lives at home with me. His work life is taking over this one. This is just a small part of him now. I’m just such a small part of him now. It makes sense that he’s found a replacement for me in his other life. His real life.”

Alyssa didn’t know what to say, so for once she kept quiet.

“Don’t tell mom, okay? I don’t want her to try to help. And I don’t want you to try to help, either. It’s not like there’s anything you can do about it. If he’s chosen a life without me, then I’ll just have to learn how to live without him, too.”

Brianna looked so completely heartbroken when she said it. Her eyes were dry, but everything about her was resigned, hopeless. It squeezed Alyssa’s heart. But her sister was right. She couldn’t help, not to solve these problems.

Alyssa couldn’t be sure if Adam was stupid enough to have an affair but she could see that Adam had made Brianna unhappier than anybody had any right to, and for that, she didn’t think she could forgive him.

What did it matter, really, if that unhappiness was from an affair or from being shut out of such a big part of his life? What mattered was that she’d never seen Brianna so miserable. Alyssa had to do something.

“Come with me to California.”

“What?”

“Come with me. There’s that conference and convention, remember? I got an invitation this year. I’ve been coveting the damn thing for years, and I’ve finally made it. Some of the best wine-makers are going to be there, some of the best wines, and it’s going to be amazing. You’ll love it as much as I will. I can take a plus one. I want to take you. Let me take you.”

“Who were you planning to take?”

Alyssa shrugged as they turned into the driveway to their mother’s home. It had been their home for about a decade before they’d moved out, too, but it had always been Chantelle’s domain. Now that she had her own home, Alyssa didn’t resent it. Maybe she even understood.

“Hadn’t really thought about it. I only got the invitation a couple of days ago and it’s been a crazy couple of days.”

“Who, Aly?”

“Nobody. I was thinking, maybe Liam wouldn’t mind…”

“Alyssa!”

“I know, okay? I know exactly how stupid an idea it is.”

“He strung you along for three years, Aly! What on earth is wrong with you?”

“I don’t know! I was just… We were supposed to go for this wine-tasting tour and it never worked out. I wanted to do it.”