Page 54 of Perfect Satisfaction

“Then why would you lead me to believe he supported me?”

“Because at the time, all I could offer you was our name,” I say, freeing one of the secrets that have been lying inside of me.

“No, Sula, what you gave was your family. Now, how did West punish you? By cutting you out of the will?” Damn, Angie’s shrewd.

“It’s one of the reasons JB’s speculated about. He said the old bastard ranted for days when I informed him I wasn’t backing down about our friendship and it was a ‘fucking waste’ and ‘I should have used whatever influence I had to end it.’ Little did Daddy Dearest know I truly had no intention of falling beneath his thumb. I thought life had other plans for me.” My lips twitch cruelly when I think of my husband. “Turns out I was wrong. Look where I ended up—working for MSW after all.”

“Speaking of your gorgeous brothers,” Angie begins.

“Um, aren’t you married to one of the handsomest and richest men in the world—at least according toSexy and Social.”

She scoffs. “Not hardly.” Then realizing how it came out, she quickly backtracks. “I meant the rich part. Your brothers have him beat by a mile if what Ward speculates is true about their wealth.”

But I’m already flopped over cracking up as Angie tries to dig her way out of this mess. But her next words stop my laughter and cause my chest to ache. “I missed this—the nights we’d do this in the dorm. I didn’t realize until you weren’t here how much I missed you, Sula.”

I jab my spoon in the ice cream and contemplate doing it again because it felt good.And she’s healed because of Arek. I yank my spoon out and this time scoop up a wad. I suck on it a bit before feeling comfortable enough with myself to say, “We lost a lot of time together.”

“You don’t look like you’ve been sleeping well.”

“It’s harder to lie to you about things like this when you’re in the same room as me,” I admit wryly.

“I know the feeling. I always used to hope the amount of foundation I had on covered the sleepless nights.”

I lean forward. “How does mine look?”

“Like you’re not wearing any.”

“That’s because I’m not.”

“Thus why I can see the circles beneath your eyes.”

I hesitate before admitting, “I dreamt of him last night.”

“Whoa. That wasn’t what I was expecting.” Angie takes the ice cream out of my hands and sets it aside. Scooting closer, she takes my hand. “Any idea what prompted that?”

I laugh bitterly. “Oh yeah.” I reach into my pocket and pull out my phone. Tapping my browser, I pull up Viego Martinez’s blog. There he is.

In full color.

Strutting down yet another red carpet. I’m normally immune to such articles, but this one guts me becauseshe’shis date—Liza Hina.

It always comes back to her.

“It was a lot easier to avoid this when I lived in Europe.” My voice warbles—damn it.

“Sula,” Angie begins. Her voice is filled with the one thing I can’t take when discussing Arek. The one thing I won’t allow myself to feel.

Pity.

“Don’t. I made my choice. I chose love—the right love.” I reach over and squeeze her hand. If her return grip is crunching my bones, so be it.

I made the right decision.

“You will never know what it meant to me that you stood behind me through the nightmare of my life.”

“After I broke your life apart? I’m the one grateful you let me.”

“Sula, we were both young. It just could have easily been you. When are you going to stop beating yourself up over it and live?”