“Who—”
“There’s no one important for you to meet,” Gabriella said softly as we slipped out of the room and into the hallway, where it was quieter. “I just wanted to get you away from the viperous bitch. God, I hate her,” she spat.
I was beginning to feel the same way. “Who is she?” I asked quietly. My eyes were glued on them through the open door. Violet, looking beautiful and elegant next to my husband, had her hand on his arm. She was looking up at him like he was some sort of god, and he was looking at her with a softness I hadn’t seen in his eyes in over a week.
“Violet.”
“I know that Alexei introduced us when they arrived.” Together, I added silently. “Who is she? He said she was an old friend.”
“Friend?” Gabriella scoffed. “Violet doesn’t have friends. She has conquests and— Too late, she realized what she had said. Biting her lip, she shook her head. “Don’t worry about it, Amy. Please.”
Too late for that. I had been worried since the moment he had arrived with her, and now, I was doubly so. My shoulders slumped. “She’s an old girlfriend.”
Gabreilla looked at me with sympathy. “She’s the old girlfriend,Amy, his only one. Until you.” Looping her arm around my shoulders, she squeezed, “But you don’t have anything to worry about. She is his past. He married you, she pointed out. “Everyone can see that the two of you are made for each other. You make Alexei happy. She never made him anything but miserable. Believe me.”
I wanted to believe her, I really did, and yet when I looked through the door, they were dancing, and he looked happy.
In fact, he looked ecstatic.
Catching my look, Gabriella turned me to face it. “Don’t let her get to you, Amy, please. Violet is nothing but a bitch. Please don’t let her take the sparkle out of your eyes.”
“I’m fine.” I lied because I wasn’t fine at all, and it was becoming harder and harder to pretend I was. “Honestly.” I hugged her back quickly. “Go back and dance with that handsome husband of yours. I know he wants to. I keep finding him staring at you.”
My friend went soft. “He is a bit of a creeper, isn’t he?” she asked affectionately. “You’d best go and dance with your husband as well, Amy. He needs you.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but I promised anyway. Only I didn’t follow after her. I wasn’t sure I could manage to put a smile on my face after what I had just found out.
Alexei, the man I was rapidly falling in love with, had brought another woman to the party I had arranged for him, and not just any woman, either. His old lover. It was like a kick in the teeth.
I was sure a kick in the teeth would be less painful.
“Amy?”
I jumped in shock at the sound of Mrs. Cole’s voice. “You scared me.” Since when did she use my first name? Even in all the hours we had spent together planning this party, she hadn’t called me Amy.
“Sorry, Amy, there’s a call for you from the hospital.”
I paled. “I’m coming.” I didn’t bother asking why they hadn’t called my mobile. They probably had, and I hadn’t heard it. I took the call in the kitchen, listening with a sinking feeling in my heart as the doctor explained the current situation.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think I understand,” I said quietly, hyper-aware that Mrs. Cole was watching me closely. “But I was told a heart was found last week.”
“It was, but your husband didn’t get the arrangements made in time, and the heart went to someone else.”
I stumbled into one of the kitchen chairs, my fingers gripping the table edge so forcefully that my knuckles cracked and turned white. “He didn’t?"
“No, Mrs. Petrovov. There’s a time limit on these things, and we have to move quickly. I presumed you knew when we couldn’t get hold of him that the transplant couldn’t happen.”
“What day was this?” I whispered, but deep down I knew.
“Last Tuesday."
I swayed in the seat. Last Tuesday had been the day Alexei had meant to take me out to dinner. It was the night I had dressed up especially for him, and he hadn’t shown up until past midnight. Then he woke me up and told me to get to bed because I had fallen asleep crying in the chair waiting for him.
That was the night that everything had changed again.
The night I was guessing Violet had come back into his life.
“What can be done?” I asked quietly.
