Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Amy
Excitement gripped me as I waited for Alexei to arrive, excitement and nerves.
Mrs. Cole had told me I’d arranged everything perfectly and that Alexei would be over the moon.
I hoped she was right because he had been so busy, leaving early in the morning and coming home long after I had fallen asleep.
If the sheets hadn’t smelled like him, I wouldn’t have known he had come home at all.
He was busy with some business. That’s all I had been told. That had been Friday when he had given me some art supplies and then quickly left again.
Clearly, he was stressed, and I wanted to take some of that away from him and give him the best birthday ever, so at least for one night, he could relax and smile again because damn I had missed that smile.
“Well look at you, Amy, what a showstopper,” Misha exclaimed as he came to stand next to me.
Gabriella swatted his arm. “Behave yourself.” Grinning from ear to ear, she beamed at me. “He’s right, though. That dress on you is dynamite. Alexei won’t be able to take his eyes off of you.
“Or his hands.” Misha wiggled his eyebrows, and I couldn’t help but laugh. Out of all his friends I had met over the last few months, Misha and Gabriella were my favorites. They were so easy-going and relaxed.
Gabriella threw her husband a look, but there was no anger in it. They were honestly the best couple I had ever met.
“I hope so.” Nervously, I smoothed my sweaty hands down the red velvet dress. Red because that was his favourite color, so I had been told.
“He’s here.” Someone whispered, and the small crowd around me fell silent. So silent in fact that the only thing I could hear was the sound of my rapidly beating heartbeat.
God, I hoped he liked—
“Surprise,” the crowd cheered as the front door opened and Alexei stepped inside.
“Happy birthday.” I rushed forward and stopped dead. Alexei looked as handsome as ever, but he wasn’t alone. There was a blonde on his arm. A beautiful, statuesque woman with sleek platinum hair and a body that could only come from a surgeon.
Startled, Alexei paused.
“Shit,” Gabriella hissed and bent me. No one moved; it was like the whole world stopped dead.
“Oh, she’s thrown you a birthday party,” the blonde said as she flexed her fingers into his arm. “That’s so cute.”
I did a double-take. What did she mean by that? There was nothing about tonight that was meant to be cute.
“Did you do this, Amy?” Alexei’s voice was soft. But there wasn’t any warmth in it. He sounded wary.
“Oh, this is Amy?” The woman cocked her head to the side. Studying me like I was a bug under a microscope. “It’s such a pleasure to meet you. ”She hugged me awkwardly. “I’ve heard so much about you. Alexei says such kind things about you.”
Glancing at my husband, I frowned. Why did he look angry?
“I’m sorry, I don’t think we have met?”
Letting go of me, she hooked her arm back into Alexei’s.
“Violet is an old friend who just got back into town.” His eyes bored down into mine. “Did you do all of this for me?” The first hint of kindness flickered into his eyes.
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said politely. I couldn’t help but look at the way she was gripping him, though, and I couldn’t ignore the uneasy silence of the guests behind me.
They clearly all knew who she was, even if I didn’t.
“I just wanted you to have a nice birthday.” I took an uncertain step towards him. I was his wife. So why did I suddenly feel like I shouldn’t touch him?
“I even had your favorite cake made.”
“German chocolate.” The smile faded from his face. He glanced down at Violet. “I’ll get rid of it, don’t worry.”
Without another word, he scurried off. He didn’t even look back at me. I watched him go with a sinking feeling in my chest. What did he mean by he would get rid of it?
“Violet.” Gabriella stepped up next to me. “I never expected to see you here.”
Violet’s smile stayed plastered to her face, as fake as the rest of us. “Well, Alexei was pretty insistent that I come and stay with him after our dinner, Gabby.”
Dinner? My eyes widened. Had they just come back from dinner? Why would Alexei take another woman out for a meal on his birthday and not me?
I shot Gabriella a look, but she was too busy glaring up at the woman. It was pretty clear they hated each other. No one called Gabriella Gabby. She hated it, and yet Violet seemed to relish calling her that.
“I see you finally got a ring on your finger, Gabby,” the blonde in front of us said scathingly, her eyes on the diamond on my friend’s hand.
I glanced between the two women. But Gabriella wasn’t looking at me. She was staring daggers at Violet. Slowly, she let her eyes drift down her body. “I see you still haven’t got one on yours, Violet.”
The slim woman reeled back and tightened her features to the point she looked haggard. Hatred flooded her features, there and gone in the blink of an eye.
“Sometimes.” She smiled at me. “The right man is worth waiting for. He’s worth fighting for.”
Oh, hell no, that was aimed directly at me, and we all knew it. Did Violet have designs on my husband? Did she have feelings for him? And more importantly, did he return those feelings?
Over the crowded room, I found him chatting happily to some of his friends. Like he could sense my eyes on him, he lifted his head and stared right back, but just for a second, before he saw Violet, and his face blossomed into a smile. My heart sank into my toes.
“Come on, Amy, there’s someone I want you to meet.” Catching my look, Gabriella dragged me away. But I couldn’t help myself. I looked back to see Violet wander over to stand at Alexei’s side. Laughing and smiling like she was the hostess and not me.
“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.
“If you can come in tomorrow, we can discuss palliative care.”
A sob ripped its way out of my throat. Palliative care, end of life. “I’ll be in tomorrow, but we won’t be talking about that until we have exhausted every single other option,” I said with more force than I felt.
“Of course. Good evening, Mrs.—”
I cut the call off before he finished. I didn’t want to be called that. I couldn’t stand to be called his wife when he had let my sister and me down so badly. How could he do that to me? How? A choking sob ripped its way out of my throat.
“Amy.” Mrs. Coles went around me, and I crumpled in her arms. “Oh, sweet girl, it’s going to be OK. All of it. You’ll see, Alexei will fix this.”
At the sound of his name, I pulled away, wiping away my tears with the back of my hand. Alexei didn’t believe that he was the reason this was happening, and if my sister died, I would never forgive him.
“He didn’t—”
Reaction flooded her face and made it a mask of horror. “It must have been a mistake. Talk to him. He will make it better. He wouldn’t let you down like that. Just go and talk to him.”
“You think I should?” I couldn’t help but remember the way he had been looking at Violet as they danced.
“Amy, he is your husband. He will want to know.” She smiled down at me. “Now wipe those tears.”
I did what she asked because what other choice did I have? I couldn’t just blame Alexei without knowing the whole truth. That wouldn’t be fair to him when he had done so much for me.
“Alexei.” I touched his arm softly, and the crowd around him went silent. All eyes on me. I knew they could see I had been crying.
“What is it, Amy?” Alexei barely looked at me.
“I’ve just had some bad news from the hospital,” I said in a whisper. “Can we go somewhere and talk in private, please?”
His head snapped around to me. Catching sight of my red-rimmed eyes, his face fell. “What’s happened?”
“No, I mean, there was a mix-up with the transplant and—” I fought back the urge to cry again. The lump in my throat was so big I could barely breathe.
“Alexei, darling, do you remember that time in Paris when—” Violet sidled up to him, her hand sliding into the crook of his arm. “Oh, Amy. You will love this story,” she gushed.
“Yeah, I remember.” My husband turned his attention away from me.
“Akexei,” I tried again.
“Not now, Amy. It’s my birthday, and you’ve done such an amazing job with this party. Let me enjoy it.”
Violet’s smile was sly. “It is the most adorable little gathering. Don’t you think? So anyway.” She went back into her story, her beautiful face animated, and everyone’s attention turned to her and ignored me.
“Alexei, this is important,” I hissed.
“I know, Amy, and I promise you, I will deal with your little problem tomorrow.”
My eyebrows shot down. My sister dying wasn’t a little problem. It was a great big problem.
I bristled, anger bubbling up to the surface.
“Go to bed, Amy.” Alexei softly slid his fingers up my cheek, and I leaned into his hand. Even that small touch gave me so much comfort. “You look exhausted, and I don’t think you are having fun here. We will talk tomorrow at some point.” Bending down, he pressed his lips to the corner of my mouth.
“Please, Alexei.” I hated begging. He didn’t notice he had already turned back to his group. Taking a deep breath, I plastered my face with a smile and moved through the room.
“Amy?” hanging on her husband’s arm, Gabriella called after me. Her eyes flickered between the group and me. I had just left, and all the blood rushed from her face. I turned to find her gaze.
My husband had another woman in his arms. The only woman he had ever loved, in fact, and they were laughing as they danced.
And he looked impossibly happy.
And in love.
I couldn’t take it. Spinning on my heels, I ran, ignoring the startled looks and Gabreilla calling out my name. My sister was going to die, and instead of comforting me, my husband was dancing with another woman.
He hadn’t even given me a second thought.